


Flipside

by Amberstarry



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bobby's House, Destiel - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Female Castiel, Female Castiel/Female Dean Winchester, Female Dean, Female Dean Winchester, Female Sam Winchester, Female-Centric, First Dates, Gabriel Being Gabriel, Genderbending, Genderswap, Girl issues, Humor, M/M, Multi, Romance, Sabriel - Freeform, Sexism, Trickster Gabriel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-09
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-24 17:51:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 42,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2590733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amberstarry/pseuds/Amberstarry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winchesters find themselves in yet another strange situation when Sam and Dean go on a hunt - only to wake up one morning slightly more feminine than they were the night before. Who did this to them, and why, is the question: Sam and Dean are on a mission to get to the bottom of it. Being female was never so Supernatural.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prettier Than Usual

**Chapter 1 – Prettier than Usual**

It was an ordinary morning, or what could be considered ordinary for the Winchesters. Dean sat up in the lumpy bed that had been provided in the most recent cheap and dingy hotel he and Sam had checked into the night before. They were chasing up a job in a fairly remote town about twenty miles north of Sioux Falls, which they had been lucky to have previously been in after a visit at Bobby's. A guy had apparently had chunks of flesh bitten out of him, by what the papers were calling a bear, with the only evidence found being the tip of what they claimed to be a bull's horn on the floor of the crime scene. Dean and Sam had decided that it seemed like their kind of thing, and had hitched up to the town of Allokot* quick-smart.

With a yawn, Dean stood and stretched out his stiff arms. If there was one thing he would have given anything for, it was a half-decent bed that he could actually enjoy his routine four hours in; as opposed to the crappy beds he usually dealt with. The only thing that redeemed them was the magic fingers, but sometimes even that didn't cut it. When his bones made a satisfactory cracking sound that signified all his joints had clicked into place, he walked into the bathroom and grabbed the face towel from the bench opposite the sink. He turned on the tap and stuck his cupped hands under the water, splashing the cool liquid over his face to snap himself awake, then straightened up and rubbed the towel over his face. It was at this point that he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror as the towel was pulled away from his eyes and almost haemorrhaged on the spot.

Now Dean liked his face. He was an attractive man, and against all ideals that would be deemed inappropriate in modest company, he knew it. He had no qualms in admitting to himself that he had a pretty face that warranted attention, and he prided himself on this whether it was a good thing or not. This was the reason he always took time out in the morning to gel his hair and make sure he was adequately clean-shaven, or only had a light shadow of facial hair that gave him that rugged sex appeal he aimed to radiate on any given day when he wasn't fully immersed in a hunt.

So it was then, that he received quite a shock when the current face staring back at him in the mirror was prettier than it had ever been before, and not in the narcissistic sense as it would first appear. The reason it was prettier had nothing to do with Dean suddenly having an epiphany of his magically super-enhanced good looks, but more to do with the fact that the face in the mirror was distinctly more feminine than it had ever been. In fact it was completely feminine. His chiselled jawline had vanished, to be replaced with a more rounded female equivalent; so too was this the case with his already full lips, which now procured a cutesy pout reminiscent of a woman's cupid-bowed kisser. His ears had shrunk, his neck had thinned and his Adams apple had plain disappeared. His eyes were bigger and thus _cuter_. The only thing that hadn't really changed was his hair. On the whole, he looked very much like some sort of pixie, and after his recent encounter with fairy folk Dean Winchester was of the strong conviction that he _didn't do pixies_.

When he looked down at himself the situation didn't get any better. His shirt hung loosely on him, accentuated by the slight curve outwards at his chest area that looked very much like breasts. His pants were almost falling off him as his waist cambered into a tamed hourglass figure that wouldn't hold them up. His hands were smaller and his fingers were thinner. It took him a few moments to register what was happening, but when he did it hit him like a ton of salt compacted into bricks – _he_ wasn't currently a he, _he_ was a _she_.

"SAM!"

The younger hunter startled awake at his name being screamed from the bathroom. As soon as he realised where he was and who was screaming, he jumped up and readied himself for action. Grabbing a pistol that was laying on the bedside table he edged his way over to the bathroom, preparing for a fight against whatever was trying to gank Dean. "Dean, hold on!" He moved closer to the doorway and then leaped into the bathroom, pointing the gun in the direction Dean's voice had come from, and therefore at Dean himself (or should I say herself).

"Whoa, whoa, put the gun down man!" Dean gestured at the ground, urging Sam to take aim off her.

Sam lowered the gun and cocked his head to the side quizzically as he took in Dean's appearance. "You're a girl."

Dean took a deep breath and nodded. "That's what I called you in here for. I have no idea what's going on, I woke up and found myself like this!"

Sam grinned and had to hold back the laughter that was threatening to escape him. "You woke up like this? What, did somebody sneak in and perform a sex-change operation on you when we were asleep?" The laughter seeped out and Sam snickered.

Dean frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. She flinched slightly at the feeling of her arms resting against two pillows of flesh that had never been there previously. "Like you're one to talk, asshole."

The laughter was cut off abruptly and Sam raised an eyebrow. "Huh?" When Dean didn't reply, he turned around and looked at the mirror. His eyes were dark and his eyelashes fuller. His mahogany hair, although usually long, now hung down to just above his waist, complete with luscious waves. His chest jutted out, like Dean's, and his waistline curved in giving him a set of shapely hips. His lower lip trembled and he looked back at Dean. "I'm a girl too!"

"Yeah, jackass." Dean looked Sam up and down. "Actually, you're not too bad, a bit tall, but not bad." She scrunched her face up in disgust. "Why am I even saying that? You're my brother - Uh, sister."

Sam shook her head. "That's not the point; the point is that we're female!" She looked at the mirror and ran her hands through her hair. "Long hair doesn't suit me."

Dean had to use every ounce of her self-control not to face-palm herself at that comment. "Look, I think the first thing we should do is call Cas, maybe he'll know what the hell is going on here." Dean took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Cas, we really need you right now, so you better get your feathery ass over here ASAP or I'll-"

"You'll what?"

Dean snapped her eyes open and her mouth dropped open. "Not you too Cas!"

Sam turned away from the mirror and gasped. Castiel stood before them, blue eyes giant and mystified, lips full and pink, face pointed and delicate, skin smooth and flawless. Hair that was usually in a messy mop now sat in an untidy bob. The trench coat that normally fitted perfectly was now hanging off Cas' shoulders, loosely staying on. The same went for Cas' shirt and suit pants.

Cas started at Dean and tilted her head to one side. "Who are you?"

"It's Dean!" Dean took a step forward and put a hand on Castiel's shoulder. "I can't believe you're in the same boat as us Cas, out of anybody I would have thought you'd be unaffected. I mean you're a freaking angel!"

"Wha-" Cas looked down at herself and raised her eyebrows. "My vessel has changed, how could this be?"

"Your vessel's be turned femme fatale," Sam replied, checking out Castiel's new body. "You look pretty good like that Cas."

Castiel shrugged and nodded. "Thank you Sam, you look nice too."

"Look, can we all just agree that we're hot as chicks and move on," Dean urged. She walked out of the bathroom and back into the main section of the motel room. "I don't know about you guys, but I want to find the son of a bitch who's responsible for this and make him put us back to normal ASAP. I am not chick material, man."

Sam flipped some of her hair over her shoulder. "I dunno Dean, you're pretty hot like this." She winked cheekily as Dean gave her an unimpressed glare from the bed where she was now rummaging through her duffle bag.

"Why are you flirting with each other?" Castiel looked from Dean to Sam quizzically, not understanding what was going on.

"Sam's being a smartass Cas," Dean explained, pulling out a shotgun from the bag and beginning to load it with shells. She changed the subject when Cas still didn't seem to be comprehending the situation. "Before we do anything, since we're in new bodies now, we have to give ourselves new – female – names, and we won't be able to us our fake ID's either."

"Okay," Sam agreed, nodding. "From now until we get our old bodies back, you'll be Deana**, I'll be Samantha, and Cas can be Cassie. Basically like our normal names, except feminine. Easy enough to remember, right?"

Dean cocked the shot gun. "Sounds good."

"I think before we do anything though I should attempt to do some research. There might be some completely feasible explanation for this." Sam walked over to the bedside table and opened her laptop which was resting there. "And before we can go anywhere we need clothes that actually fit us properly, everything we have is way too big now."

"Nothing wrong with baggy clothes," Dean responded, laying the shotgun back in the duffle bag gently.

"Yeah but baggy in the crotch," Sam countered.

"Touché."

"I can get clothes for you," Castiel offered. She clicked her fingers and the clothes she was wearing suddenly snapped inwards to fit her newly curvaceous form. "That's better."

Sam blinked; the laptop now on her lap and loading up. "Or couldn't you just do what you did to your clothes, except to ours?"

Castiel nodded once. "Yes, I suppose I could do that." She clicked her fingers again and the clothes Sam and Dean were wearing tightened to fit them. "The clothes in your bags should be the same," Cas informed.

"Thanks Cas, you're a godsend." Dean paused and then laughed, "Hey, I made a pun!"

"Uh, guys, there's one more thing we need that we don't have," Sam interrupted from over at the bed.

"What's that Sammy?" Dean turned to the younger sister, listening intently.

"Unless you want to be flopping around all over the place, we're gonna need some bras," Sam said frankly.

"Oh." Dean scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. "Cas, can you take this one?"

"I can try but I am not educated in the purchasing of braziers." Castiel looked from Dean to Sam.

"Well neither are we," they replied in unison.

Deciding that she probably wouldn't be able to get out of this, Castiel sighed and nodded. "Okay, I'll be back soon." She then disappeared.

Dean turned to Sam. "Alright Sammy, let's figure out what the hell has happened to us."

So began to start of an adventure that the Winchesters were sure to not be forgetting any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To Be Continued…
> 
> This story was originally posted on FF.net, but I decided to start uploading the chapters here as well. The story is currently ongoing, with 9 chapters complete thus far. I will upload the chapters here regularly until this is as current as the version on FF.net. Below are the original authors notes written when I first began the story.
> 
> *Allokot – Fictional town which I have created because I do not live in America and consequently do not know the geography, and can't be bothered researching it. Yes, I'm a lazy piece of crap, I admit it. Name derives from the word αλλόκοτος (allókotos) which is Greek for 'weird'.
> 
> **Deana – I imagine it to be pronounced "Deena" like an A has just been tacked on to the end of Dean's name instead of "Dee-ana". I don't know why but I just feel like the latter pronunciation doesn't match Dean's character, it's too, well, feminine xD But hey, that's just my opinion!
> 
> Okay guys, so here we have the first chapter of my genderbender Supernatural fanfic! I hope you've enjoyed it (although nothing much has happened in this chapter) and that I can keep this fic interesting. I might not update regularly because I'm currently in the last 3 months of my last year of school and I'm a bit flat out, but I promise I'll try and write chapters as fast as I can within reason!
> 
> Stay tuned for the next installment of Flipside!
> 
> Amber***


	2. Angel in Aisle Four

There was a bright light and an almost deafening roar of noise. Colours swirled in a rainbow spectrum, accompanied by a dizzying and confusing array of letters and numbers. It was like a million piece jigsaw puzzle that was impossible to figure out how to even start.

Castiel stood in the women's lingerie aisle, staring aimlessly at the selection of braziers in front of her. This was harder than she had first thought. There were so many different sizes and varieties of these things that she wasn't sure what to take. She picked up a lacy blue bra ans shook her head. Why did there even need to be so many different ones? They only served one very basic purpose, didn't they?

Dean and Sam had not said anything about there being sizes, and certainly nothing about numbers and letters and coding for said sizes. The white noise of chatter from nearby shoppers buzzed in Castiel's brain like a numbing drug. So many choices, too many choices, how was she expected to know the right ones?

There was only one solution; she would have to take all of them.

So Castiel got to work picking up two of every kind of bra she could find. When her hands were so full she could hardly contain the load she was carrying, she decided she would have to zap herself back, considering she didn't have any money to actually purchase these items. It was a breach of the Ten Commandments, but she was really at a loss for anything else to do; besides, it's not like she was exactly a saint anyway, and it was certainly not like the police could track a mysterious disappearing lady with a ton of bras in her hands, even if she was caught on camera.

She paused. She could sense something watching her. She looked around the store at the men and women walking past her; it all seemed quite normal, as far as human standards went. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was lurking in the shadows, observing her. She looked over her shoulder, still nothing. She had to get back to Sam and Dean though, and decided to not waste any more time. So before she got into the metaphysics of the consequences of nicking a bunch of bras, she zapped herself back to the hotel where Sam and Dean were sprawled on one of the beds, peering at the laptop.

They looked up when they sensed another presence in the room. "Oh, hi Ca- WHAT THE HELL?" Sam's jaw dropped and Dean jumped up from the bed. "What is this? Why have you got the whole bra aisle with you?"

Castiel dropped the clothing on the floor and looked up at Dean with a blank expression. "You didn't say which ones you wanted, so I got all of them."

Sam put the laptop down and walked over to the pile of bras. "Well I suppose we'll have to sift through this heap until we find ones that fit us."

Dean picked one up with her forefinger and thumb and held it away from herself in hesitation. "This is so wrong…"

"Oh suck it up, it's not like we're going to stay like this." Sam picked up a bra and began to strip off her top.

"WHOA! What are you doing?" Dean covered her eyes with her arm and waved the hand holding the bra in a 'stop' motion.

"Trying on bras?" Sam lowered her shirt and looked at Dean, confused.

Dean peeked over her arm and then lowered it. "Well don't strip in front of us! Go into the bathroom, man!"

"You've never had a problem with me taking my shirt off in front of you before."

"You've never had _breasts_ before!"

Sam looked down at herself and a blush began to appear across her face. "Oh, right." She slinked off into the bathroom to commence trying on the bra she had picked up.

Castiel watched Sam walk past her and then turned to Dean. "What are we going to do about this?"

"I don't know Cas, buy some dildos maybe?" Dean grinned but when Cas didn't respond to the joke she rolled her eyes. "We'll figure it out, we always do, don't we? Anyway, we couldn't find any reports of this sort of thing happening around here, but we did get a lead on the hunt we were chasing up in the first place."

"You're still going to finish this hunt," Castiel said, looking shocked (well, as shocked as Cas ever got) at the thought.

"Of course! What, you think a surprise sex-change is going to stop us from doing our job?" Dean stepped forward and dusted off the right shoulder of Castiel's coat. "You know this look suits you, you might want to keep the female appearance." She looked Cas in the eyes, who gazed back bemused. "I like it."

Sam walked out of the bathroom holding the bra and looking disappointed. "This one is way too big," she announced, before looking over at Dean and Cas, only catching the end of their extended eye contact. "I think this is going to take a while. Maybe I should take half into the bathroom, and you can take the other half in here, and we'll just go through them until we find the right ones for us."

Dean looked down at the pile and sighed. "Aw man, I hate being a chick."

"I'm fairly certain chicks hate being chicks too," Sam replied.

"I don't really see the difference," Cas commented levelly.

"That's because your vessel is just an angel condom, you can switch from female to male anytime you want. Do angels even have genders?" Dean asked matter-of-factly.

Castiel was silent for a minute before she replied. "I don't know, none of us have really thought about it. If we fall in love we fall in love, the concept of gender has never been of concern to us."

"It would be nice to have zero discrimination like that, wouldn't it," Sam commented.

Cas shrugged. "Like I said, I don't know."

Sam picked up half the pile of bras. "Okay, time to get to work, the quicker we do this the better."

Dean picked up the other half of the pile and put it on her bed. "Whatever you say, Sammy." Sam retreated into the bathroom and Dean turned to Cas. "You just gonna stand there and watch?"

Cas blinked. "Is that what you want me to do?"

Dean pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just go and chill somewhere for a while, I'll call you back when Sam and I have our shirts on again, okay?"

Cas nodded and disappeared.

Dean turned to the pile of bras and shook her head. "Angels."

* * *

Sam stood in front of a CD store, peering out at the people walking up and down the main street. Allokot was a fairly quiet town by the looks of it; very homely and country orientated. It seemed like a popular place for farmers to gather, although most of the people were dressed in modern attire. Little boutiques graced the strip, selling one of a kind bits and bobs, and were broken up by only two or three diners. One of them had a big sign up that advertised their famous apple pie - Dean had taken quite an interest in that diner, and had insisted that they stop in for dinner that night.

A dog trotted past, tongue hanging out languidly in apparent happiness. Sam followed it with her eyes. She'd like another dog, but now was not the time to dwell on that. Besides, Dean would never agree anyway, no dog was getting anywhere near her baby in this or the next lifetime they saw. She dusted off her suit and slid on the pair of sunglasses that were in her front pocket. She had tied her hair up in a neat low ponytail with the hair tie she had always kept handy in her duffle bag. Even when she was male she needed something to hold her hair back sometimes. Of course she had gotten a few comments about having a hair tie from Dean, but she was used to that sort of thing; it was Dean's way of being affectionate. They had decided to keep on investigating the hunt they had started, and had found themselves a lead at the very CD store Sam stood in front of. Of course they couldn't use their fake ID's, as Dean had previously stated, but they did have business cards that were still applicable (applicable for Dean if she explained that her nickname was printed on the cards, since "Dean" wasn't exactly a unisex title); so they decided to pose as Talent Agents instead of the usual FBI deal.

The guy they were looking for was named Gavin Renolds, and he had apparently been the brother of the victim (Mark Renolds) in question. They believed family was as good a place to start as any. The trouble was trying not to look too suspicious asking the questions they needed to, while pretending to be people who generally would not ask those questions. If it sounded complicated in theory, it was a whole other thing in practice. It hadn't exactly gone down well, they had entered the shop and asked for Mark purposefully, claiming they wanted to offer him a record deal (he had been a drummer) and they had of course been put on to his brother who had worked in the shop with him; Gavin had informed them of his brother's death and they had politely inquired into what happened. The brother hadn't really told them anything papers didn't, and after they had gotten the information out of him they had tried to make a quick getaway, but Gavin had insisted that they listen to his music and see what they thought. Dean was still currently in the store, trying to explain that they really had to leave, Sam had managed to sneak out by saying she wanted to get something out of the car.

And thus Sam stood in front of the CD store, waiting for Dean to come out.

After several more minutes Dean emerged from the store, the bell chiming as she opened the door and stepped outside. She gave Sam a narrowed glare and crossed her arms over her chest. "You know after you left he started hitting on me."

"He started hitting on you?" Sam lowered the sunglasses she was wearing to look at Dean with surprise. "What did he say?"

Dean's cheeks flushed and she turned away. "That doesn't matter, what matters is that you ditched me you bastard!" She walked over to the car and opened the door, slipping in and then slamming it shut.

Sam shook her head and followed suit. When she was in the car Dean turned on the radio and ACDC started blasting through the speakers. "He did tell me something interesting though," Dean remarked as she reversed and started to drive. "Mark was really into Greek mythology."

"You think he might have summoned something," Sam asked.

"Could be," Dean replied.

"I couldn't find any hex bags in your room."

Dean and Sam jumped in shock at the new voice that had popped into their conversation. Sam turned around to look in the back seat and Dean glanced in the rearview mirror. "You almost gave us a heart attack Cas!"

They had tasked Cas with searching their hotel room to try and find the cause of their transformation while they went out hunting. They weren't too confident they'd find any results, but they had to eliminate the most obvious possibilities first before they got to the nitty-gritty.

Castiel looked out the window. "Sorry."

Sam sighed. "Well I guess that rules out witches then," she said, turning back to the front.

"Did you find anything else, Cas?" Dean put her eyes back on the road. She wasn't getting her hopes up, it sounded pretty futile anyway. Whatever had changed them wasn't making itself obvious like they hope it would.

Cas turned to look at the back of Dean's head. "No, there was nothing that I could see. No hex bags, no cursed objects, no sulphur, no ectoplasm. From what I could tell the place was completely clean."

Sam sighed again. "So no demons or ghosts either."

Dean looked over at Sam and smacked her on the leg, then put her hand back on the steering wheel. "We'll find what's doing this, okay Sam? Now stop being such a pessimistic piece of crap."

"You're laying the insults on heavily today," Sam commented.

"Yeah, well you left me in a CD store with a pervert. I think you can withstand a bit of badmouthing." 

Sam rolled her eyes. "You know women have to go through that kind of thing every day. Maybe it'll teach you to not be so pervy to women yourself after we manage to find a way to change ourselves back." She glanced at Dean with a semi-smirk forming on her face.

"I'm not pervy," Dean muttered, "I'm just sexually deprived."

"Sexually deprived my ass!"

"If you are deprived of something I could help you," Castiel offered from the back.

Dean looked in the rearview mirror and then back out at the street. Another blush rose to her cheeks which didn't go unnoticed by Sam, who was staring at her intently. "That's okay Cas, I'm good."

Sam bent down and picked up the duffle bag next to her feet, then pulled out the article on the hunt to read over again. "So, where to now?"

Dean started to brake softly as they came to a set of lights, then looked up and started adjusting the rearview mirror. "Guess we should visit the scene of the crime. Next stop, Mark's house."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'm uploading these again, I've had the opportunity to edit the chapters to fix any silly mistakes I didn't originally pick up on, and also to add small things which I think make the chapters flow better. Because of this the chapters I upload here will be slightly different to the ones on FF.net. Just a little beside for anybody who might have read both versions and be wondering about why they're not the same. 
> 
> Amber***


	3. It's All Greek To Me

Dean picked up a half-empty bottle of ouzo and sniffed it, then pulled it away swiftly to get rid of the strong aroma. "When Gavin said his brother was really into Greek stuff he wasn't kidding."

Sam looked up from the books she was examining. "Huh?"

"Ouzo, it's like alcoholic liquid liquorice, Greek speciality," Dean explained, putting the bottle down and moving on.

"And you would know that, how?" Sam raised an eyebrow sceptically.

Dean shrugged. "I know my liquor, that and I once had Greek girlfriend for a few weeks when I was working a case with Dad."

That was all Sam needed. She turned back to the pile of books that she was standing over. All of them were stories centred on Greek mythology, specifically the tale of some guy called Theseus. A lot of the books were written in Greek, so Sam couldn't decipher them, but the few that were in English looked pretty gruesome. It was common knowledge that Greek Mythology was quite explicit though, so Sam wasn't that shocked at what she was seeing. "You ever heard of Theseus?"

"Isn't it similar to a dictionary?" Dean eyed a poster on the wall depicting Odysseus fighting the Cyclops and shook her head.

" _Theseus_ not thesaurus you idiot," Sam corrected exasperatedly. "All these books are about him. Some of them are in Greek so we can't read them but there are a few which are in English. I think we should take some of them with us and read up on whatever they're about, it probably has something to do with the case."

Dean turned back to Sam and shot her a scowl. "I knew that, I'm not an idiot. Anyway, that sounds like a pretty solid idea. You collect the books and I'll do a quick once-over of the place to see if there's anything else of value around here."

Castiel walked into the room wearing her trademark blank expression. "No need, I already scoped the premises and there's nothing else in here."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You're sure?"

Castiel side-glanced at Dean without changing her expression. "Are you questioning my vigilance?"

"No." Dean shook her head. "I'm questioning your certainty."

"I don't see the difference."

Dean rolled her eyes. "Never mind."

"So are we ready to go," Sam asked as she threw her duffle bag, now filled with books, over her shoulder.

Dean looked around and then let her eyes linger on Cas for a few seconds before turning back to Sam. "Yeah, I guess we are."

* * *

Dean sat on the motel bed staring at the TV. She was entirely engrossed by what she was watching. Moans of pleasure elicited from the program followed by a badly executed "Oh Dr. Sexy!" Dean leaned closer, trying to get a higher definition visual of the enthralling medical drama. In this episode, the shy but sexy doctor Narre had found out that Dr. Sexy had performed unauthorised surgery on her father to save his life, and now she was making slow, passionate love to him as a thank you.

"Why do the Doctors have sexual intercourse in the hospital?" Castiel inquired.

Dean jumped in fright as she was ripped out of her fantastical world of medicine and sex. She turned to Cas who was standing next to the bed watching Dr. Sexy M.D intensely, trying to understand the concept, or lack thereof of it. "I don't know Cas, I don't focus on things like that."

"But isn't that considered socially inappropriate?" Cas looked down at Dean. "Humans are so confusing. They make it explicitly clear that that doing that sort of thing is highly indecent and then they put it in their television programs. Why?"

"That's precisely why they put it on television, because they can't do it in real life," Dean explained. "You think nobody fantasises about it? You think nobody wants superpowers, or to be a wizard or to get busy with their smokin' hot doctor in the hospital bathrooms? But we can't do those things because they're impossible, so we make fiction; stories where it does happen to satiate our appetites." She gestured to the TV. "Understand?"

Castiel looked back at the TV. "No."

"Don't angels have stories?' Dean asked indignantly.

"Not really," Castiel replied, "We generally just talk about things that have actually happened. We have never had the need for… fiction."

Dean shrugged. "I guess when you're all-powerful beings you don't need to fantasise, you can just make things happen."

Castiel turned to Dean just as an actress on screen exclaimed "I love you!" and Dean's face flushed for the third time that day.

Their conversation was interrupted when Sam opened the door of the motel room and let out a particularly loud yawn. "Next time you want burgers you can get them yourself," she told Dean as she pulled her cup of salad out and then threw the bag of burgers and fries to Dean whose face was still rosy red.

Dean picked up the remote and switched off the TV; she suddenly wasn't interested in Dr. Sexy's escapades anymore. She pulled out one of the burgers and offered it to Castiel.

"You know I don't eat," Castiel said, not moving.

Dean nodded. "Yeah, but I thought you might like one, 'cause you know, you were so fond of them for a while."

Cas reached out a hand and took the burger. "Thank you."

Sam stuck a fork in her salad and started to nibble on a piece of lettuce as she waited for her laptop to load up. When the screen turned on the web browser popped up sporting images from BustyAsianBeauties.com. Sam turned to Dean who was now digging into her burger happily. "You've been watching porn?"

Dean swallowed her food. "I wanted to test out the new equipment, see if it was more efficient or not, _if you know what I mean_ ," she explained, giving Sam a wink.

"Will nothing stop you from getting off? I swear you're a horn dog," Sam said turning back to her laptop. "Incidentally, was it any different?"

"Less mess, so that's a plus," said Dean, taking another bite of her burger, "but other than that I don't think there was any major distinction."

"I'll take your word for it," Sam commented.

Castiel took a bite of her burger and swallowed it without chewing. "Eating is so strange."

"Just enjoy the taste, don't think about it," Dean told her in a muffled voice through her mouthful of food.

Sam went to type in a web address in the internet browser. She groaned as she tried to flick her hair out of her eyes but the long strands hung heavily over her face, and there was no forthcoming respite from the seemingly endless annoyance that was her chocolate tresses. Even as a male her long hair had never been this much of a hassle, she couldn't figure out how women dealt with this on a regular basis.

Dean noticed Sam's frustration and put her burger down. "What's wrong Sammy?"

"It's this damn hair," Sam grumbled, "it's all in my face and mouth and ugh! I hate it!"

Dean chuckled and walked over to where Sam was sitting, struggling with the tangled strands of hair bombarding her face. "Here, let me help you." She slid her fingers through Sam's hair to make it neat and then gathered it in her hands into a ponytail on the top of Sam's head; she then folded it over and tied it together with Sam's hair tie into a loose bun. With a smile, Dean sat back down on the bed and picked up her burger once more, staring at her handiwork all the while.

Sam reached her hand around and felt the bun. Her eyes widened in surprise. "How did you learn to do that?" She turned to Dean, staring her down quizzically.

"When I was living with Lisa I had to help her do her hair sometimes when she didn't have any free hands. You know, like when she was doing dishes or helping Ben. I just kind of picked it up, it's not hard you know, I thought you would have learned to do it with all that hair you had before."

"I generally just let it hang loose before," said Sam.

"That's what _he_ said," said Dean.

"What who said?" asked Castiel.

"Don't worry," sighed Sam.

There was a silence for a few minutes as Sam began looking up things on her laptop and Dean and Cas continued to eat their hamburgers. They didn't have many times when they were silent like this, or as calm as this for that matter, and truthfully, not that any of them would admit it, they were quite uncomfortable in the peace. When you ran around killing monsters for a living quietness became a rare, nay, freak occurrence. One that was probably more unnerving than it should have been.

Castiel sat down on the bed and nibbled at her burger tentatively, still unsure about the food. Dean took hearty bites, munching the meat and buns in her mouth happily. She glanced at Cas and shot her a small smile to encourage Cas to keep eating. Meanwhile Sam was oblivious to the other two as she began googling things relevant to the hunt, periodically taking a mouthful of salad followed by a gulp of soda. When Dean finished her burger she stood up and stretched then groaned in discomfort.

"God bras are uncomfortable, they itch and scratch and dig into your skin so much they leave big fat marks," she remarked as she lifted up the side of her top and manoeuvred the elastic of the holding device to reveal the red lines etched into her skin.

Sam looked away from the computer and picked up her cup of salad, deciding she was too hungry to half-ignore it anymore. "Has anybody told you that you whinge when you're a chick almost as much as you do when you're a guy?"

"Has anybody told you that you're almost as much of a bitch when you're a guy as you are when you're a chick?" Dean retaliated, putting her hands on her hips.

"Actually I think you're both exactly the same in personality no matter which gender you are," Castiel commented from the bed, still tending her now half-eaten burger.

Sam and Dean responded by turning to Castiel and shouting "Shut up Cas!" in unison with angered tones.

Sam shook her head. "Look Dean, you and I both know that this isn't an ideal situation. Neither of us asked to wake up with boobs and vaginas, but we did, so we'll deal with it. We'll find whatever has done this and we'll gank it, and then we'll turn back to normal. Then you can go back to complaining about manly things, okay?"

The older Winchester ran a hand through her hair and rolled her eyes patronisingly. "Don't get your titties in a twist Sammy." There was a pause and then Dean grinned unrestrictedly. "I've always wanted to say that."

"Glad you found a silver lining," Sam said sarcastically.

"Whatever did this to you must have immense power. It didn't just change your appearance it changed your whole physiology." Castiel paused. "Oh yes, it changed mine also I guess."

"Well whatever it is it's going to get a red hot poker jammed up its ass when I find it," Dean rejoined.


	4. The Horny Truth

Sam stared at the laptop disbelievingly. She had scoped google and countless Greek mythology websites only to come across the same thing over and over but it couldn't be true; it just couldn't. There were things that were made out to be myths that were actually real, like vampires and ghosts, and then there were creatures which were assuredly not real and _could not_ walk the earth. Sam knew this, Dean knew this - every hunter that wasn't brain-dead knew this. And what Sam was looking at right now was one of the creatures that according to all logic should have been non-existent. She had checked the facts and then checked them again yet it seemed like this was the only plausible answer.

She looked over at the window to see the afternoon sunlight streaming into the motel room and basking her in a semi-uncomfortable warmth. She shimmied on the seat to try and take the pressure off her back. Sometimes conclusive answers just didn't make themselves known during hunts but she wasn't really vying for a challenge. Things were getting too weird here - she just wanted to be done with this hunt, get back to normal and hightail it out of the town before some other freaky crap started up.

Dean snorted and lurched upright in her bed, groggily mumbling something about not letting the pie burn before her brain registered that she had woken herself up from the nap she had been taking. She rubbed her eyes and then looked over at Sam who was staring at her laptop with a bemused expression. "Found anything yet?"

Sam looked over at Dean and sighed. "Yeah, but you're not going to like it."

"When have I ever liked it," Dean rebutted, standing up and walking over to the cheap baby blue plastic table and chair that Sam had positioned herself at. "Lay it on me, bro."

"Shouldn't that be 'sis' now?" Sam inquired, raising an eyebrow cheekily.

Dean nodded in sardonic agreement. "Yeah, yeah, just tell me what you've got."

Sam turned the laptop around so Dean could see the screen and revealed a picture of a creature that was half-bull half-man. "Minotaur," she said blatantly.

"A Minotaur?" Dean bent down and started to examine the picture. "No way, dude. These things don't exist, you know that. You can't seriously believe one of these things has been lurking around this town and not one person has seen it."

"I don't know," Sam answered truthfully, turning the laptop back to herself. "I've been up most of the night and all morning searching for something more concrete but this is the only thing that makes any sense - even though it hardly makes any sense at all. It was either a minotaur or a particularly pissed off cow."

The older Winchester put her hands behind her head and started to pace up and down the room. "Well it does explain the bull's horn on the ground of the crime scene. So how do we kill it?"

At this question Sam grimaced and scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. "Well in the myth Theseus, the guy you mistook for a thesaurus yesterday, grabbed its horns and kind of… snapped its neck."

"He what?" Dean paused her walking and turned to Sam. "How in the heck are we supposed to snap its neck?"

"You got me."

If there was any hope in Dean's eyes it had been shoved aside by the previous statement. This whole thing was starting to look pretty futile to the two Winchesters. "Do we know anything else?" Dean tried feebly, a last resort to finding this thing.

"Yeah, in the story the minotaur lives in a dark labyrinth. I'm guessing that it probably went and found a place that's dark with a lot of hallways to run around in after it finished our friend Mark off." A grim expression overtook Sam's face and she said no more. If this could get any more ambiguous it would be a pretty difficult feat.

Dean walked over to the small black fridge that sat in the corner of the room, layered in a sheath of dust and strung to the wall with multiple cobwebs. Housekeeping was obviously not a high priority in this establishment. The fridge itself contained the standard compendium of assorted goods: mini milk cups (just enough for a coffee), a small bottle of champagne, a bottle of coke, a can of Fanta and a bottle of spring water. Those were stashed in the door, Dean reached into the belly of the beast where she had thrown in a six pack she had purchased the day before. Her hand clasped around the neck of the beer bottle as she pulled it out from its packaging, and as her skin came in contact with the chilled glass a thought suddenly occurred to her. She span around, ripping the bottle smoothly from its packaging and locked eyes with Sam who had noticed her sister's sudden change in manner. "There's a hospital down the road, right?"

Sam squinted in confusion but nodded nonetheless. St Hubertus Hospital was a mile or so down the road from their hotel, they had passed it on the way from the record shop. However she failed to see the importance of that. Mark was already declared dead, he wasn't in hospital, he was in the ground, so what would they gain from going there?

"You said it likes a dark places with corridors, right? Well where there's a hospital there's gotta be a morgue down in the basement: somewhere to put all the people who have passed. Morgues have to be dark most of the time, and they have corridors, and if this thing likes to feast on human flesh what better place to go than somewhere full of fresh human meat that won't struggle against you – it's basically like a Minotaur's all-you-can-eat buffet." Dean popped off the lid of her beer and took a swig. "What do you think?"

The other Winchester was in awe. She blinked and stood up from her chair. "I think you just single-handedly solved the mystery I've been working on all night."

"Not bad, huh?" Dean winked and took another swig of her beer.

* * *

The Winchesters loaded their shotguns and stashed them in the duffle bags they were carrying. Sam closed the boot of the impala and turned to Dean who was shoving a sickle into her bag. The fluorescent lights of the hospital spilt out into the night with a sterile white glare, although the majority of the windows only displayed dimmed lights due to the time. It was three o'clock in the morning, a time when the least amount of staff were in (Dean and Sam knew this from past experiences lurking around in hospitals). The parking lot of mostly empty and the impala stuck out like a sore thumb in its parking spot which was removed from the few fleet cars near the entrance. When Dean had gotten the sickle into her bag she turned to Sam and gave her a nod.

"What are you doing?"

Dean swung around to find Castiel eyeing her and Sam quizzically. Dean sucked in a breath and regained her composure. "You have to stop sneaking up on us Cas! We're hunting a minotaur, we think it's down in the morgue of this hospital."

Castiel's eyes widened. "Minotaur's exist? I always thought they were legend."

"So did we," Sam interjected walking up to Dean, "But apparently they are real. So are you going to come with us or are you going to disappear again?"

"I'll come with you," Castiel replied instantly. The sisters nodded in understanding and moved towards the doors of the hospital. Castiel began to follow, bringing up the rear, but paused just before she went in through the front doors. She looked over her shoulder; there was nothing there except the empty street. She had sensed something or someone though and it had felt familiar. It was the same as when she was in the supermarket. She couldn't put her finger on it but something was definitely not right; until she could name exactly what was following her though, it would be pointless telling Dean and Sam since they would want a definitive answer. For now she shrugged it off again and continued inside, trailing behind the two hunters as they weaved their way through the hallways.

Sam rounded a corner and beckoned Dean to follow her quietly. They made their way through a set of doors and then went down the fire escape stairwell to the basement level of the hospital. They knew that the elevators were probably crawling with hospital staff so they didn't take any chances, even though Castiel, who was right behind them, could have zapped them out at any time if they managed to get caught by one. Sometimes it was just easier to avoid the hassle.

"Is it just me, or is it dead quiet down here," Dean whispered as she started opening her bag to pull out her shotgun.

Sam looked at her. "Really? You're going to make stupid puns at a time like this?"

"I'm going to make stupid puns at all times Sammy, that's what I do," Dean responded cockily.

"Dean has a point though, it is very quiet down here," Castiel remarked from behind them. She froze when she swore she could hear a laugh emanating from the cavernous corridors spanning behind her.

Dean noticed Castiel's start and paused for a moment to look back at her; she flicked her eyes over the area behind the angel but there was nothing there except for the long white hallway and there had been nothing ahead. "You okay Cas?"

At the sound of Dean's voice Castiel came back to reality and blinked several times. It was not often it felt like something was messing with her mind, but now seemed to be one of those times. "Yes, I'm fine…"

"I hate to interrupt guys, but I think we found our guy," Sam said looking at what appeared to be a teenage boy, with bull horns jutting out of his skull, one broken, bent over a cadaver in the autopsy room and systematically ripping away at it like it was the first meal he had eaten in weeks. At the sound of Sam's voice, he stopped his feeding abruptly and snapped his head around to see the trio standing behind him wielding guns and in Dean's hand, a rather sharp looking sickle. His pupils seemed to shrink at the sight of the weapons and he dumped the rest of the body back on the autopsy table and span around in an effort to make an escape. Sam aimed and let off her shotgun, piercing the minotaur in the shoulder but not damaging him enough to put him out of action; she shot him again and this time it hit his neck, but he only wobbled slightly at the impact before regaining his balance and beginning to advance on the sisters and angel.

Dean reached out and hand and called out to Sam: "Here, I'll take your gun and give you the sickle. Cas can hold him down and you can slice his head off and we'll finish this quick and clean."

Sam nodded and all in a moment the two sisters simultaneously swapped weapons, throwing them to each other and catching them in perfect synchronicity so that within a split second Sam was holding the sickle and ready to pounce. Castiel moved forward dodged a swing that the minotaur took at her, before circling around behind him and grabbing his shoulders in an iron grip. When she was sure she had him secured, she locked eyes with Sam who understood immediately and launched forward, swinging the sickle in a swift motion and cutting through the neck of the creature. Blood spilled over the floor and drenched Castiel's trench coat; the angel let the body drop to the floor and breathed in heavily, puffed out from the action.

Dean's face broke into a giant grin and she laughed in astonishment. "That was awesome, Sammy! You're really good at getting heads off things. Maybe we should crown this your signature kill."

"Maybe," Sam agreed, chuckling as she wiped off some of the blood that had spurted on her face. "I guess our work here is done."

"Let's chuck this guys body into one of the refrigeration units and then hightail it out of here," Dean said, unarming the shotguns and then stuffing them into her duffle bag along with the bloodied sickle. She then bent down and grabbed the minotaur by the arms and started to drag it over to the refrigeration cubicles. "Oh and Cas, you think you could clean this up for us?"

Castiel turned to Dean with her usual lack of expression. "Of course, I'll stay back and fix this, you get yourselves out of here."

"Sweet, thanks a million Cas."

Sam walked over to Dean and helped her lift the body into a refrigeration cubicle and then slide it shut. "We'll catch you later then Cas," she said as she and Dean picked up their things and started to exit the morgue. As they walked a flash of gold caught Sam's eye and she stopped in the corridor to pick up a food wrapper off the floor that somebody had carelessly left on the ground.

Dean halted and looked back at Sam, watching her curiously. "What are you doing?"

"It's a chocolate wrapper," Sam said flatly, scrunching it in her grasp.

Dean rolled her eyes and then squeezed them shut in aggravation. "Son of a bitch!"

* * *

This is unrelated to everything but I did a drawing of Cas sitting on his park bench. I call it **The Angel with the Bent Halo**. Enjoy :3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **To Be Continued...**
> 
> **Fun fact:** the name of the hospital Sam and Dean find the Minotaur in is St Hubertus Hospital. Hubertus is the patron saint of hunters in Christianity.
> 
> I was waiting for somebody to notice this on the version I uploaded to ff.net, but nobody did. I guess Sam and Dean did have somebody watching over them in that hospital after all. 
> 
> Amber***


	5. The Sweetest Deception

"We should have known," Dean growled, angry at not having realised earlier. "Who else would magic up a minotaur?"

Sam walked over to a nearby bin and threw the wrapper away. "Yeah, well there's not much we can do about it now. If you can hear us though Gabriel, I would advise you to get your ass out here and explain what the hell is going on."

A bout of maniacal laughter sounded from behind the duo, causing Sam and Dean to spin around. They both knitted their eyebrows together in seriousness at the sight of the archangel who sauntered up to them casually - still guffawing all the while.

"I see you ladies have been busy," Gabriel quipped, almost skipping in a circle around the Winchesters.

Dean followed Gabriel with her eyes. "What have you done to us," she demanded, not in the mood for Gabriel's games.

"Boredom is a debilitating thing, Dean. One has to find some cure for it, otherwise he might go insane." Gabriel stopped in front of them and grinned.

"Boredom? You did this out of _boredom_?" Sam grabbed Gabriel by the lapels of his khaki jacket and pulled him towards her menacingly. Even as a female she was a good head taller than him.

Gabriel lifted his hand and waved his index finger at Sam condescendingly. "Uh, uh, uh. Hands off the threads, chickie. I wouldn't want to have to hit a girl."

"Go ahead, hit me and see what happens," Sam spat back almost reflexively.

Gabriel clicked his fingers and then he was standing a good few feet away from Sam, who still had her arms up where they had been when she was gripping him. She let her arms drop and huffed in annoyance at the slippery little punk that always managed to elude her.

"Now that we've had our reunion, I think I should skedaddle. Places to go, people to see –"

"Not so fast, Gabriel."

Castiel walked up behind the golden-haired trickster and put her hand on his shoulder. The cheeky archangel turned around to be face to face with her, his eyebrows rising and lips turning up at the corners as he did so. "Woooowee Cas, you're smokin'. Seems like you can't go wrong with that vessel you got there. Very well chosen indeed, sis!"

"Thank you," Castiel replied in a monotone, "Now cut the crap and put us back to the way we were." The angel wasn't having any of her brother's idiocy. Her friends were at stake and there was no way she was going to let this clown put them in danger because of a fit of boredom.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, sis, because I'm having way too much fun watching you three fumble around dealing with your new bodies. It's hi-larious, and way too good to end this soon." Gabriel turned back to the Winchester's. "However, I won't kill anybody else. Watching you squirm is enough for now, so I'll be generous and spare you any more work."

"Why thank you, your graciousness," Dean remarked sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "But that's not good enough, we want to be normal again and we want it now."

"We don't always get what we want," Gabriel responded flatly.

"So what? We have to humour you until you've had enough?" Sam looked at Dean whose eyes were glued to Gabriel, steady yet dangerous expression fixed on her face. The younger Winchester bit her lip and turned back to Gabriel. "Fine."

Dean whipped her head around to Sam. "WHAT? You can't be giving in to him just like that!"

"What choice do we have, Dean?" Sam sighed. "We can't match the power of an archangel; not even Cas has that ability. We have to give him what he wants or he could easily just make us disappear from existence or something."

"Smart kid," Gabriel said, smiling at Sam. "I would listen to her, Dean."

"As much as it pains me to agree, Sam is right Dean. We can't fight Gabriel," Castiel begrudgingly concurred.

Dean looked back and forth between Sam and Cas, her jaw setting in an angered pout. After a few minutes of staring her sister and friend down, she rolled her eyes in defeat and turned back to Gabriel. "Fine, do what you want."

"Excellent!" Gabriel clapped his hands together and then rubbed them briefly in anticipation. "Let the show commence! I gotta grab me some popcorn."

With that the archangel disappeared, leaving Sam, Dean and Cas alone again in the hospital corridor. Dean scratched the back of her head and gestured for Sam and Cas to follow her. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"You know we had no choice, Dean," Sam insisted as she began walking with her out of the hospital.

"Yeah, I know," Dean muttered.

"Maybe I'll be able to talk to him later," Cas suggested from behind the duo. "He might listen to me, I am his brother after all."

"Don't you mean sister," Sam corrected.

"I suppose," Cas answered indifferently.

Dean sighed to herself. They had to be the most Mickey Mouse operation to walk the face of the earth. "I need some sleep."

* * *

Knock, knock, knock.

Bobby flipped his book closed and jumped up at the sound of the knocking at his door. He dusted off his denim vest and began to walk to the front corridor. Not many people visited him, so he knew it must have been Sam and Dean again, back from finishing their hunt. "I'm comin', I'm comin!" He called out gruffly as the knocking started again just before he got to the door and pulled it open.

The old hunter paused as he took in the two women standing on his doorstep, both looking quite annoyed and frustrated. Bobby took his cap off and pushed his hair back. "Well hello ladies, is there anything that I can help you with?"

"It's us Bobby!" The woman with short, almost buzzcut hair barked at him. "It's Dean and Sam." She stepped to the side slightly revealing a third woman with shoulder-length, messy dark-chocolate brown hair. "And Cas."

"Dean?" Bobby leaned closer to her and squinted his eyes in focus. "My god, it is you. I'd recognize them feisty forest greens anywhere. Come on in."

The trio shuffled inside the house as Bobby stood aside for them. The four congregated in the kitchen where Bobby headed over to the fridge and retrieved beers for all of them, excluding Cas who never drank. He handed one to each sister and kept the last bottle for himself before taking a seat at the small kitchen table and having a swig to get his head straight.

"So what the hell is going on this time? Seems like every time you show up at my door you have some new, even weirder problem that needs fixin'."

Sam and Dean looked at each other and simultaneously took swigs of their own beers. It was Cas that cut in and answered for them before they could respond. "Gabriel turned us into females for his own amusement and won't turn us back."

"Gabriel," Bobby repeated, rolling his eyes. "Should have guessed ya idjits would get tangled up with that joker again."

"Hey, it wasn't our fault," Dean said, grabbing one of her breasts and pointing to it with the other hand that still held the beer bottle. "You think we wanted this, you think we wanted to walk around wearing bras and bleeding out of our unmentionables? We already have enough blood loss. This is all Gabriel, that snarky bastard."

"Oh calm down, Dean, it's not the end of the world," Sam chided, sprawling herself up on the kitchen bench. "We just have to ride it out. He'll be over it soon enough and then we'll be back to our normal selves."

"You're awfully optimistic for somebody who has literally died and lost her soul for this kind of crap," Dean rebuked.

Sam nodded in mock agreement. "Bitch."

"Jerk," Dean responded.

"If I didn't know you two better I'd think you're a couple of hormonal teenagers bitchin' at each other," Bobby interjected.

"I said I would talk to Gabriel alone. I'm sure I can talk him out of this," Castiel added from the corner.

Dean looked over at Cas whose facial expression hadn't changed this entire time. "I'm sure you will, Cas."

"Was that sarcasm, Dean?"

"No."

Sam sighed. "Yes, she was being sarcastic Cas."

"Let her figure it out for herself, Sam. She's never going to get the hang of human emotions if you keep bottle feeding them to her." Dean drained half of her bottle of beer and then let out a sigh of refreshment.

"Stop belittling everything I say," Sam retorted. "I was just helping her."

"Would both of you shut up," Bobby shouted, standing up from the table. "I swear you're both big babies. We'll sort this out, but for now both of ya settle down, wash yerselves up and watch TV or somethin'."

"Okay, okay." Dean put her beer down on the table. "I call dibs on the first shower."

Sam took a sip of her drink. "Whatever."

As Dean walked out of the room Sam turned back to Bobby. "So, anything new since we left?"

"If you're talking about new hunts then no. Haven't had enough time to come up with new information." Bobby finished off the last of his drink and stood up to throw his and Dean's bottle in the rubbish bin. "I'm going to have a nap, see you in a few hours."

Sam and Cas were left in the kitchen alone together. Sam didn't bother trying to make conversation with Cas because she knew that there was nothing to say. Stranger things had happened; it was just a matter of waiting it out until some semblance of normality came back into their lives. Sam never saw this as a big deal, after all dealing with the supernatural on a regular basis more or less desenstised you to unexpected physiological changes. When she thought about that, it made her realize how screwed up hunting really was. Nobody should come to expect crap like this.

She looked down at herself, a long strand of hair falling in her eye-line after coming loose from the ponytail she was keeping it in. This wasn't so bad, not by a long shot. She was still Sam Winchester, she still had the same memories and the same beliefs and the same experiences: she just had a new body to work with. Plus, she would never admit it to Dean but she had always secretly wondered what it would be like to be female. But realistically who didn't think about being the opposite sex at some point in their lives – it was one of life's great mysteries since you could never know exactly. Well, most people couldn't anyway.

Sam looked over at Cas and took the last swig of beer she could from her bottle. "You know, Cas, I don't think we've ever asked. What exactly do angels do for fun?"

Cas snapped out of the trance she seemed to be in and returned Sam's gaze. "Well, it depends on the angel. For instance Gabriel does this." Cas gestured to Sam's body.

The younger Winchester couldn't help but laugh. "I see. Well, what do you personally do for fun?"

Castiel pondered for a moment before answering. "I like to spend my time in silence, looking at the stars. Or exploring peoples heavens when time permits."

"Well we can't explore heaven." Sam hopped off the counter and walked over to the bin to dispose of her bottle. "But we can watch the stars. Come on, let's go sit outside."

There was an amiable silence as Castiel followed Sam out of the room and through the house to the expanse of the scrap car lot. A peacefulness seemed to settle over them as they sat down in the chairs they pulled out from the shed and looked up at the night sky where brightly sparkling stars were visible. It was lucky it was a clear night.


	6. Desperate Househunters

Cas paced the living room. Everybody else was asleep now, but fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you viewed it) angels didn't require sleep, so she had time to think over the situation. She knew her brother, knew him well enough to trust that this little stunt wasn't going to be reversed any time soon; she also knew that Gabriel, unlike his two archangel peers Michael and Lucifer, wasn't quite as sadistic and unforgiving. Eventually, going by Gabriel's previous misdeeds, he would clean up his mess. However, when that would happen was anybody's guess. Right now it was really just a matter of waiting until Gabriel grew bored and decided he had had enough.

The other question was, could Dean and Sam continue hunting while in these bodies? Or would they be too distracted to do so efficiently? While Sam seemed more levelheaded about the whole ordeal, Dean appeared to be having a hard time reconciling his new form. From these facts Cas concluded that while it may be difficult, it would not be impossible.

"Cas?"

The angel span around, her semi-long hair whipping behind her back as she did so. Dean was standing in the doorframe leading into the dining room, watching her passively. "You okay?"

Brushing off her momentary shock, Cas put on her normal stoic expression. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Dean responded, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I can't sleep," Cas said, feeling awkward from the way Dean was intently staring at her and smirking like there was something she was missing.

"Neither could I." Dean raked her eyes up and down Cas' body. While the outside of her was now woman, her mind was still very much of the male persuasion; as such, having Cas stood before her looking like a lost _female_ puppy stirred something inside her that was hard to ignore. The angel was just so adorable like this: the enlarged cerulean eyes that sparkled with confusion and struggled understanding, the fuller pink lips that pursed together in thought, the softened heart-shaped jawline that clenched ever so slightly in concern, the halo of hair that fell shaggily to her chin like a messy kittens fur. Yes, Dean had noticed all these things and despite trying, could not brush them off. She had never thought of Cas in this way before. It was strange.

Cas played with her fingers and looked around the room absently. "There's really nothing else we can do, we just have to wait until Gabriel grows tired of this." 

"Yeah, I figured as much." Dean walked up to Cas and put a hand on her shoulder. "Well be fine, we always get out of these messes in the end." It was what she truly believed, and Cas would know that.

There was a short silence before Cas nodded. "You're right."

There was something about the glint in Dean's eyes that unnerved Cas on a certain level. Not in a directly anxiety-inducing way, but more in a slightly discomforting way. She often looked at Cas like this, but recently it was becoming a more common occurrence. Whatever the reason for it was, Cas didn't know how to react to Dean's newfound fascination with her.

Dean moved her hand from Cas' shoulder up into her hair, winding her slim fingers into the soft locks. She caressed the hair between her thumb and forefinger. There the two stayed, in that position silently regarding one another until Dean came back to herself - and blinking rapidly, realized what she was doing and removed her hand. Cas narrowed her eyes in confusion but said nothing.

"I'm, uh, I'm going to make another attempt at sleep," Dean said roughly, turning around and heading back out of the room. "Goodnight Cas."

"Goodnight Dean."

* * *

Bobby grumbled to himself as he fried up rashers of bacon for the boys, now turned girls. "Damn things always stickin' to the pan…"

"Smells good, Bobby." Sam walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table, resting her laptop on it and opening it up. "Suppose we better start on the next case."

The elder hunter turned away from his cooking to eye the Winchester pointedly. "Yer goin' to continue hunting?"

Sam looked up from the laptop screen. "Yeah, of course. What else are we supposed to do?"

"I dunno, figure out a way to get Gabriel to give you back your original bodies," Bobby offered. He scraped the bacon out of the pan and put it aside on some paper towels to blot the oil while he went on to frying the eggs. "I would have thought you'd be more concerned about it!"

The younger Winchester rolled her eyes. "Exactly what are we supposed to do, Bobby? We're at the mercy of an archangel, we can't exactly compete with that kind of power."

"No, but you could outsmart him."

Sam sighed. "We've tried before, but you can't trick a trickster." She drummed her fingers on the table absently. "Hey, wasn't it you who said that when we first told you about Gabriel?"

Bobby cut the eggs that he had put in the pan while he was talking apart from one another with the spatula. "Oh yeah…"

"Cooking bacon and eggs are we," Dean strode in, hands in the pockets of her jeans, and casually looked over the two hunters. "Good thing you're cookin' cause I'm starving!"

"I thought you'd be hungry after showin' up on my doorstep in such a fuss. Figured you probably wouldn't have thought to eat anythin' before ya got here." Bobby put an egg on a plate with some of the bacon and a piece of toast then set it down in front of Sam. "Now get this into yeh' before you do anything else. The last thing I need is one of you idjits passing out on me."

Dean sat down next to Sam and picked up a piece of bacon from her plate. "So, what have we got Sammy?"

"Well there's this report from up in Michigan, a girl was found dead in her bed when the parents went in to wake her up in the morning. Says her body was drained of all its blood. Sounds pretty vampiric to me."

"Sounds like a plan. So when are we heading out?" Dean spoke through her mouthful of bacon, then smiled up at Bobby as he placed a plate down in front of her.

Sam closed her laptop and pulled her breakfast closer to her and away from Dean's gluttonous hands. "Well I'm thinking after breakfast." She picked up her knife and fork and started to cut up the egg.

Dean watched as Sam began to shovel the food into her mouth. "You okay?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, I'm just ravenously hungry. Usually I can go for days without getting like this, I don't know what's going on."

"I'm sure you'll shake it off soon." Dean patted Sam on the back. "So Bobby, you coming with us?"

"Do I have a choice?" Bobby sat down at the table with his own plate of food. "Look at what happens when I'm not with you, I think I'm gonna have to keep tabs on the three of you to make sure no other funny business happens."

Dean grinned. "Glad to have you aboard, Bobby."

Bobby shot Dean an unimpressed glare and went to work on his own breakfast. "Yeah, whatever."

* * *

The road was empty save for a few candy wrappers that were getting tossed around gently by the breeze. Cas walked forward, following the trail of debris. It had taken a good five or so hours to find Gabriel through the angel radio. Filtering through the thousands of voices to find one particular person was just as complicated and time consuming as it sounded.

Moving up the road found Gabriel perched on a large rock off to the side, popping cubes of toffee into his mouth happily. By the look on his face as Cas approached, he had been expecting this.

"Hey Sis! How's it going?"

Castiel stopped in front of him and stared at him levelly.

"We need to talk."


	7. Love Will Do The Trickster

"Oh really?" Gabriel slouched forward on the rock and rested his elbows on his knees. "And what might you want to talk about?" His eyes glistened with amusement; he was fully enjoying tormenting the tumultuous trio.

Castiel didn't move, instead keeping her eyes firmly planted on Gabriel's insolent grin. "You need to change us back," she said unwaveringly in her solemn, gravelly voice.

Gabriel laughed. "I don't have to do a damn thing, Cas. You know you can only sit back and bite your tongue because you don't have the power to go against me. Besides, I haven't actually done anything to harm you, or tweedledum or tweedledee, so what's the problem?"

The lesser angel stared blankly and stayed silent. Cas couldn't argue with that. Technically, Gabriel _hadn't_ harmed any of them in any way: he had just messed with their bodies and minds. While disconcerting and uncomfortable, it was hardly a vicious attack on them. They could go about their lives, just not exactly in the same way as before. And because of that, it left Castiel at a stalemate. There wasn't a good enough reason to convince Gabriel to turn them back straight away, and the archangel wouldn't let up for mediocre excuses. It was either drop a bomb and demolish the whole thing, or walk away and wait for time to heal the wound. There couldn't be a quick fix, Gabriel just wouldn't allow for it.

"It's strange," Castiel muttered in a feeble attempt to answer Gabriel's question.

The trickster stood up and took a step towards Castiel. "Only weird if you make it that way, sis." He moved closer and closer until their noses were almost touching. "I think you're better this way." The archangel reached a hand behind Castiel and grabbed her bottom, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Cas jumped and pushed Gabriel away. "Who gave you the right to touch me?"

"Sorry." Gabriel dusted his hands. "You're just so cute I'm starting to forget you're Cas, if that makes sense."

"No, it doesn't." Castiel eyed Gabriel distrustfully. "I don't like this."

Gabriel sighed. "Tell you what, sis, I'll turn you back on one condition."

At this Castiel snapped to attention. This was an unfounded variable that she had not accounted for. Gabriel making her on offer? She didn't even consider that. "What is the condition?"

"That you get Dean to admit his little crush on you." Gabriel turned around and walked back to the rock he had been sitting on before. "It was fun to watch it at the beginning but now this little awkward dance he – or should I say _she_ – is doing around you is just embarrassing. Get her to swallow her pride and let the cat out of the bag, and you can get your old meat suits back."

Cas was a little taken aback. "Dean? Crush? I don't understand."

Gabriel slouched forward and fixed Cas with a look that positively screamed 'you have to be joking'. "You can't be serious, you haven't noticed?"

"Dean is just a friend, we have a professional relationship. We share information and we occasionally hunt together, there's no other emotions involved." Cas tucked a piece of hair behind her ear unconsciously – the same side that Dean had been fondling the night before.

"Oh Cas," Gabriel sighed, "You can be such a dumbass sometimes. Trust me when I say she has the hots for you. Big time. Even if you don't believe me it's the only way you have out."

There was a brief pause where Cas hesitated, she really didn't want to give in to Gabriel's request, but she didn't have a choice. "Fine."

"That's my girl! Now go get her!" Gabriel grinned and suddenly he was gone, leaving Castiel alone on the side of the road. She decided she better go back to Bobby's house before a car pulled over and tried to offer her a ride under the assumption she was hitchhiking. Normal human interactions were hard enough, let alone something like that.

She felt very uncomfortable with the whole situation; she thought Gabriel would have treated her better than this considering they were siblings, but it seemed nobody got privileges in Gabriels book. There was only one thing for it – she would have to get Dean to confess.

* * *

Dean sat on Bobby's old, warn couch. Its pillows were flattened by years of use and having piles of dusty lore books stacked on them. It wasn't the comfiest of seats, but to Dean it was perfect just the way it was. She didn't mind not living in luxury, as long as she had the bare necessities she was content. She had flicked on the small set top TV across the room, and after a few minutes of fiddling with the rabbit ears had managed to get a decent signal. There wasn't much on at the moment, given that it was smack-bang in the middle of the day and afternoon programming by definition was complete crap, but it was nice to have background noise.

Over at the back of the room, Sam was ensconced at the desk with piles of books surrounding her. She had taken it upon herself to use this interlude at Bobby's to brush up on her lore knowledge and do a bit of reading on creatures which she hadn't yet had the pleasure of encountering. It was all very 'geeky' as Dean had put it earlier, but Sam thought it was an important task that needed to be undertaken. The more knowledge they had, the easier it was to hunt; at least that was what she believed.

Bobby was in the kitchen, making a few calls. He had decided that the first port of call would be to see if anybody else had any bright ideas on what to do about the situation. He had many connections and somebody might have a small idea of the type of thing that might be useful. It was a long shot but they didn't have many options. Angels were tricky, and Gabriel was even trickier. It was a matter of wit and luck really, but Bobby was hoping that there might be a loophole somewhere that they had all overseen.

Cas landed in the living room, in front of Dean who tried to crane her neck around her so she could still view the TV. "You're in the way of the TV Cas."

The angel didn't respond and moved forward until she was standing over the hunter and blocking her view entirely. Dean gave up on trying to see the television and looked up at Cas, whose legs were practically touching her knees she was so close. "Remember personal space? Well that's still a thing, Cas." She didn't know what the angel was doing, but it was interfering with her entertainment.

"Did you make any progress with Gabriel?" Sam inquired when she looked up and saw Cas had come back.

Ignoring Sam, and without a word of explanation, Cas bent over Dean and pressed her lips to the hunters'. It was a quick, soft peck that caused Dean to tense up in shock and Sam's jaw to drop in surprise. It was over before it really began and just as quickly as she had gone in for it, Cas pulled away and stepped back.

Dean's eyes darted around before settling back on Cas, her hands against the back of the couch bracing herself from the unknown onslaught that had been thrown at her. She blinked rapidly and frowned in confusion. "Wh-what the hell was that?"

"I'm trying to get you to admit that you have romantic feelings for me," Cas responded deftly.

Dean arched an eyebrow and looked at Cas like she had just grown three extra heads. "What?"

Suddenly everything stopped. Dean froze in position, the sound of Sam echoing Dean's 'what' in the background cut off before it was finished, the particles of dust hanging in the air that only Cas' angel eyes would have been able to pick up snapped into permanent stillness. The background noise of the TV had ceased, the program it was currently showing had frozen, even the faint sound of Bobby talking on the phone in the kitchen had disappeared. Cas looked around in disconcertion.

"That's not going to work."

Cas spun around to find Gabriel perched on the back of the couch next to Dean's still form. He looked down at the hunter and smirked, shaking his head. "You have to be more subtle, you're never going to get Miss Buttercup here to admit she has a thing for feathered friends if you just assault her."

"I don't know what else I'm supposed to do," Cas mumbled, embarrassed slightly and getting increasingly frustrated.

"Love can't be forced, little sis. On the flip side it's never easy." Gabriel hopped off the couch and stood next to Cas. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to get your old body back."

"Why must you make this so difficult," Cas breathed exasperatedly.

Gabriel shot Cas a grin. "Because I can." And with that Gabriel disappeared again and the rest of the world came back into motion.

Dean stared up at Cas quizzically, still waiting for a reply. Not knowing what to say or do, Cas walked out of the room and upstairs to flee from Sam and Dean and avoid having to explain her actions. This whole thing was ridiculous. She felt like she was stuck up a creek without a paddle and Gabriel was sitting on the bank laughing hysterically at her.

Who was she kidding, that is _exactly_ what was happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "tormenting the tumultuous trio." 
> 
> Try saying that ten times fast ;)
> 
> Amber***


	8. Room with an Ironic View

Dean turned to Sam, who appeared to be as bemused as herself. "I'm starting to get worried about Cas," Dean breathed, unconsciously lifting a hand to her lips in post-kiss disconcertion.

Sam shook her head and looked down at her book. "I'm leaving this one to you, I don't really think it's any of my business and I don't want it to be."

"Oh yeah, leave me with the crazy angel," Dean countered, standing up. "You're a great partner, you know that?" The sarcasm was thick and unabashed in Dean's tone.

The younger Winchester thought it better to not give a reaction in this situation and continued reading, ignoring Dean's comment and the ensuing slew of curse words thrown at her that followed it.

After Dean realized that she wasn't going to get anything else out of Sam and had made herself feel better by letting out her frustrations in the form of obscenities, she decided that she was going to have to go upstairs to try and find out what was going on by herself. At least she could take solace in the fact that she could be off guard around Cas and that she didn't have to carry a knife with her or anything of that sort. In fact, after everything they had been through the notion of doing such a thing actually amused Dean. Castiel, the puppy-like baby in a trench coat, would never hurt a fly unless seriously provoked; but oh, when she was provoked she was a sight to see. Not many people had such dramatic transformations where they went from calm to angry - if they did it was often quite unnoticeable and incidental – but with Cas it was something else altogether. When those cerulean eyes narrowed and zeroed in on their target it was almost like a silver inferno ignited within them and afterwards nothing could sway Cas from her purpose. Dean admired that, and saw it as one of Cas' best qualities. Still, it took a lot for that to happen, especially with Dean, and that safety was greatly coveted by both Winchesters in a world where so many wanted their heads severed from their bodies.

The stairs in Bobby's house were rickety and rough, they squeaked every time weight was applied to them and bent in slightly at the centre. Like most things in Bobby's house they were also covered in dust that had gathered from years of neglect. It was Bobby's wife who always cleaned the house, and since she had passed the poor old guy hadn't had the heart or will to take up her duties. He had said before that if he did it would be acknowledging that she was gone, and try as he might he couldn't bare to let go of his denial nor shake his stubbornness at turning the other cheek. Dean and Sam both thought it was sad but never said anything because it wasn't their place; and really, what could they say? They had never had to tell Cas to be discreet about it, unlike most things she had picked it up pretty fast on her own. There were just some things which weren't spoken and that was one of them. As Dean ascended she ran her hand along the railing and stared upwards to see if she could catch a glimpse of Cas. No such luck. She must have been hiding in one of the rooms. Dean sighed and continued to the top of the stairs silently.

When Dean reached the second floor she peered around the hall and noticed one of the doors leading to the other side of the house was slightly ajar. Cas wasn't very inconspicuous at the best of times, in this instance it was quite useful. The Winchester walked forward and pushed open the door, revealing a pensive Cas sitting on the bed of one of Bobby's spare rooms, facing away from her.

"What's going on, Cas?" Dean asked gently, approaching the angel calmly so as not to intimidate her. She decided using a manner that implied she wanted to know what was wrong instead of demanding an explanation was probably more likely to be fruitful. You catch more flies with honey, after all. 

Cas turned her head to face Dean and hesitated a moment before answering. "It's Gabriel, he won't turn us back to our original forms unless-"

"I thought we already decided to let him play his little game until he got bored. Wasn't that the plan?" Dean spoke quite forcefully, finality in her voice. She walked around the bed and sat next to Cas who was grateful she didn't have to crane her neck on that awkward angle anymore to look at her.

"Yes…" Cas said slowly. "However, now there are other conditions. I made a deal with him so that we could get turned back faster." She studied Dean's face for a reaction before she continued, but the hunter was keeping an expert poker face. "He-he told me that he would turn us back if you admit you have feelings for me. I personally think he's a few teaspoons of sugar short of a candy bar, but I figured it was a good opportunity to fix this mess before it got any more out of hand."

Dean sat up straight and cleared her throat. "Feelings? What feelings?" She asked, refusing to look at Cas and instead focus on the bed covers, which had suddenly become fascinating.

It was all Cas could do to not punch Dean in the face from exasperation. "Don't play dumb with me Winchester, you know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Even if I did know what you were talking about, what makes Gabriel think I see you in that way? You're Cas, you're my buddy, you're an angel! You're not some girl I just met on the road or some fling or anything like that. You're Cas, you're-"

"I know." Cas turned away and stared at the painting that was hanging on the wall in front of her. Ironically, from what Cas could make out, it was a painting of Gabriel smiling serenely while staring down at the virgin Mary. Yeah right, like that ever happened. She glanced at Dean. "I guess I got blindsided by my determination to get us - get you - back to normal. I apologise."

Dean sat up straight and pondered the situation for a moment. "So, he's not going to budge until I admit it, huh?"

Cas shook her head.

"And I bet he's not going to settle for cheap bullshittery either."

Cas shook her head again.

"Well, looks like we're going to have to do this the old fashioned way then, aren't we?" Dean smiled and put a hand on Cas' thigh, flashing her an inconspicuous wink at the same time.

The angel cocked her head to the side in confusion and looked down at her thigh, then back up at Dean. "What is the old fashioned way?"

"Well that's simple." Dean leaned in closer to Cas and whispered softly in her ear: "Will you go out on a date with me?"

As Dean pulled away, Cas just looked even more befuddled than before, if that were possible. She scrunched up her face in bemusement and tried to process what Dean had asked her, but it failed to really register, so she just answered the affirmative anyway. "Uh, okay?"

Dean took Cas' hand and stood up. "Excellent. There's a nice restaurant down the road from here that Bobby's taken us to a few times. Let's go there. My shout, after all, what sort of date would it be if I didn't pay for my lady?" The smile on Dean's face was one of amusement and egocentrism, probably because she thought she was being particularly clever, but it did also seem slightly forced and Cas couldn't ignore that.

Before Cas could respond, Dean pulled her up from the bed, intertwining their fingers in the process and proceeded to lead her out of the room and back downstairs. At this point she wasn't sure what was going on in the slightest, but she figured Dean would know what to do better than she ever would; if her last attempt had been any example, anyway.

The hunter knew this is exactly the sort of thing Gabriel wanted, and so she would give it to him, even if it killed her. Anything to get back into her original body, and now that Cas had made this deal it didn't look like there really was any other alternatives. When they reached the living room Dean paused to pick up her wallet, keys and handgun (just in case). She slid the wallet into her back pocket and slotted the gun into the holster hidden under her shirt. When she had gotten everything together she turned back to Cas and flashed her yet another exaggerated smile. "Shall we?"

"Where are you guys going?" Sam asked, walking up to them. Her long hair was up in a high ponytail and bobbed along to the rhythm of her stride as she moved, it also framed her face and eyes that were bright with curiosity and concern.

Dean turned to Sam and answered honestly. "We're going on a date."

"Come again?" Sam arched an eyebrow and stuck her chin out as if to say 'what's going on' without having to utter a word.

"You heard me," Dean repeated, "We're going on a date. We'll be back in a few hours."

"You're not going to tell me what's going on, are you?"

"Nope."

"Okay, have a good time then." Sam's voice was suspicious but she knew that right now she wasn't going to get any proper information, so she backed off.

Dean nodded and smiled. "Seeya Sammy." She intertwined her fingers with Cas' again and turned around to go to the door.

Cas barely had enough time to say "Goodbye Sam." Before being whisked away by Dean to their alleged date. How this was going solve anything was beyond her, but maybe a night off would be nice?

What neither Cas or Sam knew though, was that Dean had a plan; a plan that was going to backfire on her in the most wonderful way possible.


	9. Get Your Heart In The Game

The car ride to the restaurant couldn't have been described as anything less than awkward. Dean was focused on the road, hands at two and ten on the steering wheel. She didn't look at Cas, her eyes permanently glued to the asphalt in front of her. She had a determined air about her; Cas just wished she could decipher what was going on.

The angel shifted uncomfortably in her seat. It smelled of a mixture of leather, gunpowder, stale blood and fast food in the car. It wasn't the most pleasant of combinations but nothing the angel wasn't used to at this point. She would have much preferred to fly to the restaurant, but that was impossible for Dean, and the hunter would never have left the Impala when it could have been of use anyway. So Cas sat in silence, thinking better of voicing her doubts. This was Dean's solution however flawed and nonsensical it was; and even if Cas was wary of the outcome it could produce she daren't say so. It was a very viable option that Dean would flip her switch and take it out on Cas - and avoidance of that scenario was at the top of Castiel's priority list. It was her plan to get this done and over with so that Dean would feel like she had at least tried, before moving on to something more practical. Until that time, however, Cas had to hold her tongue.

"So, how's life Cas?" Dean asked off-handedly as she turned a corner.

"Morbidly bleak," Cas answered.

Dean laughed. "You crack me up, you know that? I love how you're always so serious, it's kind of adorable."

Cas couldn't help but notice the sincerity in Dean's tone as she spoke. Dean wasn't making up responses that she believed Gabriel would find acceptable – she really meant what she was saying, and that humbled Cas quite a lot. She liked being appreciated for being herself; it was a nice change.

Cas smiled and looked down. "Thank you, Dean. I like how you can make everything humourous. It's a human trait I've always been fond of."

"Ah, what's life without a sense of humour?" Dean turned away from the road and smiled at Cas for a brief moment before turning back. "Did you know that Sammy hates my jokes? I don't understand why, I think I'm hilarious; she's always too uptight to laugh though. I still love her."

"I don't understand why she would hate them either," Cas replied, "Perhaps it's because you make them at inappropriate times."

Dean opened her mouth to respond but then stopped herself, she appeared to be a bit embarrassed. "Yeah, probably."

Cas looked out the window and saw a paddock with a herd of sheep grazing in it. She watched as a mother sheep stood on the watch for any dangers as her lamb suckled her teats beneath her. If Dean had of been looking she probably wouldn't have picked this up, Cas' enhanced vision allowed her to see these details. She turned back to Dean who had stopped at a red light and was fiddling with the radio. A moment later and the car was filled with the sound of dirty electric guitar and heavy drums. "Why do you like this sort of music?" Cas asked as Dean started nodding her head to it.

"I suppose it lets me vent my anger in a healthier way than bathing in the blood of my enemies," Dean answered facetiously. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and scrunched up her lips as she began rocking out.

Cas let out an inconspicuous sigh and watched Dean engage in some brief air guitar before the light changed back to green and she refocused herself on driving. The rest of the car journey was quiet but not long, only a few minutes later and the impala was pulling into the parking lot of a restaurant called Camrisa. Castiel thought it sounded like an Italian restauraunt, but until they entered she couldn't be sure.

Dean opened the door and slid out, walking around to Cas' side to open the car for her before she had time to do it herself. "After you, milady."

Cas exited the car and looked at Dean quizzically. "I don't understand what's going on, Dean."

Dean nodded. "Welcome to the club." The hunter proceeded to walk into the restaurant, leaving a bemused Castiel no other choice but to follow behind.

When they walked in a waiter approached them and asked them where they would like to sit. Dean chose a table at the back near the window, this allowed for a semblance of privacy but also gave them a visual of the parking lot and road outside just in case any demons tried to pull something. You could never be too careful when you were a hunter. The restaurant itself was small but homely. Each table was dressed with gingham tablecloths and set with serviette holders, salt and pepper, and a long necked vase filled with a single red rose. A 50s style jukebox sat in the corner, crooning out background music for the restaurants patrons to enjoy. There was a pleasant level of chatter, not to little which could have easily made the atmosphere awkward, but not so much that Dean and Cas wouldn't have been able to hear themselves over everybody else in the establishment. The specials of the day were listed in white chalk on a large blackboard that sat above a hearth of a fireplace, which displayed a steadily crackling fire that warmed the room cozily. The smells coming out of the kitchen made Cas' mouth water, despite the fact that she had no real interest in food.

The waiter handed them both menus and told them that he would be back in a few minutes to let them decide on what they would like to order. Dean looked at the menu for a few seconds before sitting back and knitting her fingers together. "I think I'm going to go for the steak, haven't had a good steak in a long time," she told Cas as she browsed the other options.

Like Cas had suspected this was definitely an Italian resaraunt. There were a selection of pastas, pizzas, seafood dishes and rich deserts.

After a few minutes of looking at the menu, Cas finally settled on the lasagna; it seemed like the best bet since she had seen many characters on television shows eat it and they always seemed to enjoy it. The waiter came back, as promised, and took their orders, then came back again with their drinks. Cas had gotten a simple glass of water, and Dean had ordered a nice glass of merlot to go with her steak.

"Our lives might be a complete mess, but at least I can enjoy a glass of wine and a good steak," Dean said before taking a sip from her glass.

Cas unconsciously mimicked her and took a sip of water. She put the glass down and lowered her hands into her lap. "Dean, what are we doing?"

"Damned if I know, I'm just making this up as I go along."

It wasn't the answer Cas wanted, but somehow she didn't really expect anything else. If she was to be honest she had done exactly the same thing with her own plan. She looked around the restaurant again and saw a couple sitting on the opposite side of the room; their arms were rested on the dining table and they were laughing and holding hands. She turned back to Dean to see her scratching her cheek clumsily. Human emotions were a complex subject, one Cas had an endless amount of questions about – most of which were never going to be properly answered. That being said, it suddenly started to dawn on Cas exactly what Gabriel meant when he spoke about love. She and Dean could have this continuous back-and-forth of crazy put-on acts of affection, but that would never satisfy the Trickster. Cas could see there was something fundamentally different about the couple on the other side of the restaurant to her and Dean. She and Dean weren't laughing and holding hands, they weren't staring at each other like they never wanted to look at anybody else ever again, and they certainly weren't wanting to be involved with each other sexually. To put it simply, their hearts just weren't in it.

However, there was something… something that Cas could feel under the surface between her and Dean. She had always thought it was just a particularly strong bond of friendship, but maybe it was something else. It was something Cas didn't know how to act on, and that Dean, if she could also feel it, refused to act on. So where did that leave them?

Dean knocked on the table and Cas started, violently snapping back into reality.

"I know you like zoning out in your own little world and falling into silence, but that's not how a date works. You gotta put in a little effort." Dean sat back and picked up a breadstick that had been provided by the waiter earlier.

"Sorry," Cas mumbled. It suddenly seemed like a good idea to remove her trench coat because she had gotten quite warm. She slid herself out of the long coat that perpetually covered half of her body, stood up and folded it over the back of the chair before resuming her seat.

Dean watched curiously. It was interesting to see how different Cas looked without her trench coat on, as compared to when it was. For instance with the trench coat on she looked much broader but when it was removed she was quite petite and her white shirt fit snuggly against her body. Dean swallowed and quickly took a bite of her breadstick to stop her mind going anywhere it shouldn't. She conveniently forgot that nobody would realize what she was thinking now: as the female body did not have any conspicuous indicators.

Cas noticed Dean watching her. "You know, since I have taken this vessel I have only ever worn the clothes he- err, she was wearing when I took it. I've often wondered if I should acquire some new clothes. Do you think I should, Dean?"

Dean shook her head and spoke through a mouthful of bread, "No, I think you look really good in a suit. It, haha, suits you!" She swallowed her food and laughed again at her pun.

Cas couldn't help but chuckle too. She was starting to understand human humour, even if it was a bit cliché, crass and/or childish sometimes.

"You're cute when you laugh."

Dean's eyes widened when she realized what she said. She just outright flirted with Cas, her best friend, _an angel_. It occurred to Dean that there was something Gabriel hadn't factored in to his little matchmaking scheme: God's punishment for getting with one of his angels. If Dean didn't already have a special spot with her name written on it somewhere downstairs, she was definitely going to have one now.

Strangely enough Cas didn't react to Dean's comment. All that Dean picked up was a "thank you," and a half smile.

The food arrived shortly, and Dean was all too happy to dive into her meal. She started hacking away at the piece of meat on her plate with an arguable overenthusiasm, while Cas gently cut away at her lasagna and nibbled on it gingerly.

"Mmmm," Dean purred as she chewed her medium-rare porterhouse, "This is awesome."

"The lasagna is acceptable," Cas responded as she began to cut away another piece of the pasta. It might have actually been spectacular but Cas had no way of knowing since she couldn't detect anything beyond the molecules.

Dean leaned over the table. "Let me try some of yours and I'll let you try some of mine."

Cas paused and put down her knife and fork. "Is that acceptable behaviour? I thought it was wrong to share food."

"You never _share_ food, or at least I draw the line at it anyway," Dean explained,"but there's nothing wrong with giving each other a sample. Sam and I do it all the time, everybody does."

"Really?" Cas was slightly taken aback. It seemed strange to give somebody else any of your food when they had specifically asked for something else to eat.

"Really really," Dean quipped. "Now give me a taste." She extended her fork to Cas so she could take it and put some of the lasagna on it, but Cas didn't take it. Instead she cut off a piece of the lasagna with her own knife and fork and fed it to Dean herself.

Dean blushed and sat back, chewing the lasagna slowly. When she finally swallowed she looked down at her plate. "N-not exactly what I meant, Cas, but the lasagna is good too. We should come to this place more often."

"I don't understand, you wanted some of my food so I gave it to you," Cas said, completely baffled at how she could have possibly got this wrong.

"Yes but I meant for you to put some on my fork, not for you to actually feed it to me. People do that when they're in relationships when they're out on dat-" Dean caught herself before she finished the sentence. "Oh, right, never mind."

Cas tore her penetrating eyes away from Dean's face to look down at her steak. "So do I get a taste of your food or does the exchange only go one way?"

"I'll give you some, hold on." Dean cut off a piece of the steak and leant over with the fork in her hand. It seemed wrong to do the opposite of what Cas did, even if it wasn't what Dean originally intended her to do. Cas leant forward and closed her lips around the fork, taking the food away from it.

She chewed it thoughtfully for a moment before swallowing and saying, "The meat is also acceptable," and going back to her own food. Dean chuckled and continued eating her steak.

It wasn't long before they had finished their respective meals and were sitting back to let everything digest. Dean took a long sip of her remaining wine and let out a rather loud burp, then sighed with satisfaction.

Cas looked out the window that Dean had been siting in front of. It was now dark outside but she could still make out the shape of the Impala sitting in the parking lot, looking very out of place as usual next to all the other modern cars. The street was also visible, neon signs illuminating the sidewalk and streetlights bathing large circles of the road at equally distanced intervals. There were two people walking down the street. It seemed peaceful.

"Well, I think we better head back to Bobby's. I'm full now and I'm ready for bed." Dean pulled out her wallet and took out a fifty-dollar note, slotted it into the bill case and then stood up. Cas silently followed suit and picked up her trench coat, but not before sneaking one last peak at the couple across the restaurant. They were now eating dessert and the woman was feeding the glazed cherry on her cake to her partner. Cas smiled; perhaps she and Dean weren't so different to that couple after all.

Dean was fixing her jacket when Cas turned back to look at her. She hesitated for a moment before asking Dean her next question. "Dean, do you think we could hold hands?"

"I-uh-um-wha-" Dean spluttered. She looked at Cas' face and saw that she was serious about this. "Okay, I guess…"

Cas stepped forward and took Dean's hand in her own. It felt right there somehow. Their hands were relatively the same size but Dean's were calloused and roughened from years combat, and considerably warmer, while Cas' were soft and unblemished.

Dean looked away awkwardly. Secretly she thought it was rather nice holding Cas' hand, but she would never admit that to Cas. They walked out of the restaurant hand in hand. Dean took out the keys to the Impala and they only separated when they were standing next to the car. They slid into their seats and took off to Bobby's in a comfortable silence.

About fifteen minutes later the Impala pulled into the car scrapyard. Dean put the handbrake on and turned to Cas. "Well, this was a good night. We should do it again sometime."

Cas nodded. "Yes, we should."

They stared at each other for a minute. Dean felt like she should do something, but she didn't know what. She turned around to open the door, but just as she had placed her hand on the handle she decided to turn back to Cas. Without a second though she stretched out her hands and cupped Cas' face, bringing it to her own. She captured the angel's lips softly, parting them slightly with her tongue. It was slow and gentle.

Unbeknownst to the two women in the car, a figure stood a few meters away leaning on one of the abandoned chassis', watching them while unwrapping a lollipop and smiling to himself.


	10. The Whole She-bang

Sam flipped another page in the Norse mythology book and groaned. Her stomach gurgled and she stood up and went into the kitchen. There must have been something seriously wrong with her; she just couldn't stop eating today. Four sandwiches, two packets of chips as well as Bobby's breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast and she _still_ wasn't satisfied.

"Seriously Sam? _More_ food?" Bobby gave Sam a concerned look as he walked into the kitchen. This had been the fourth time he had caught Sam scavenging for food; if she kept going like this his cupboards were going to be bare by tomorrow.

The younger Winchester froze on her way to the fridge and turned her head to Bobby. "I know," she answered lamely, "but my stomach just won't stop! I've never been this hungry before in my life."

Bobby stepped closer to Sam. "You're gonna eat me outta house and home soon," he said, wondering at the same time if it might be pertinent to block Sam's path to the refrigerator.

Sam cast a longing glance at the fridge and then let her head drop. "You're right, I'll just ignore it. I just wish I knew why I was so hungry."

The look on Sam's face made Bobby crack, and he couldn't refuse her any longer. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out a carrot. "Here," he said, handing the vegetable to Sam. "Munch on this. It should keep you occupied for a while."

Sam took the carrot from Bobby's hand and smiled. "Thanks Bobby, I'll make sure to do some shopping for you when Dean and Cas get back with the Impala."

"You better," Bobby retorted gruffly, exiting the room and leaving Sam to her own devices.

Heading back to the living room Sam took a bite of the carrot and found herself wishing Dean had left the car with her so she could go on a burger run. As good as sandwiches and carrots were, her real craving was for unhealthy fatty food like hamburgers and fries and butt-loads of chocolate. She could have about killed for some chocolate. Her strange hunger and cravings weren't the only irregular things happening to her though; the last few days she had also been feeling pretty crappy for no reason she could really explain. In fact, since she had woken up female she had been rather sad and cranky, and had this headache that she just couldn't shake.

She sat back down at the desk and continued reading about Norse mythology as she ate her carrot. This whole situation sucked, really. She had put on a happy face for Dean because she knew if she started bitching the antagonism about being female would never end. Sam's problem wasn't so much that she had anything against being female on the surface – which she knew was probably about 90% of Dean's complaint – it was the apparent side effects that came with it. Dean didn't seem to be getting any, or if she was getting them she was doing a pretty good job of hiding it. That probably explained why she was stuck on having breasts and a curvier waist. The funny thing was Sam felt like she knew what all these symptoms pointed to. She was sure she had heard about this happening to women for some reason, but she couldn't put her finger on the cause. Maybe she was just coming down with the flu or something, which wouldn't be very good because it would put her out of action but at least she'd know that it would eventually pass; but no, it couldn't be the flu because she wouldn't be hungry if she was getting the flu – food would be repulsing her, or she'd at least be hocking it back up if it wasn't.

There was suddenly a sharp pain in her abdomen and Sam doubled over with a gasp. She stayed like that for a few seconds and just when she thought the pain was dissipating, a second jolt of pain shot through her like a bolt of lightning. Maybe she had eaten so much her stomach had burst, Sam thought, because it sure felt like that – except it didn't, not exactly. The pain was lower than usual for a stomachache, and more localized. It felt like something was pushing on her bladder, she felt bloated and the pain was more intense than anything she had felt in her stomach before. She moaned and lifted herself off the chair slowly so as not to induce another wave of pain. She began to walk cautiously to the bathroom. Perhaps she had eaten something not quite right and she was paying for it. That was her best guess anyway since she had eliminated the possibility of a stomachache.

It took her a few minutes to actually get to the bathroom and hobble over to the toilet while she attempted to ignore the pain radiating from her centre. While it wasn't the worst pain she had ever felt (being stabbed in the chest was pretty much seconded in agony by nothing) it came pretty damn close. She slipped off her pants and sat herself down. She knew what this was, she could feel it, it was on the tip of her tongue. It was going to be so obvious when she figured it out, she thought. She let her head drop in exasperation.

And that's when she saw it.

The blood. All over her underwear.

Sam blinked. She hadn't been hurt in any way that she knew of, and certainly not down in that region. Then everything clicked into place and the look on her face turned from bewilderment to outright indignation. "GABRIEL!"

"You called, sweetie?" Gabriel said, perched up on the basin like some kind of bird. He looked down at Sam and grinned.

Sam yelped and stretched her shirt over her knees to cover herself. "What the hell are you doing in here? Can't you see I need some privacy!"

"Oh calm down, I'm a multi-millennia-old archangel, I've seen all the bits and bobs before, trust me." Gabriel hopped down from his perch and leaned himself against the wall. "Besides, you were the one who called me, milady."

"Yeah, about that," Sam spoke through gritted teeth, "why do I have _working_ ovaries?"

"That time of the month, huh?" Gabriel laughed, but upon seeing the seething look in Sam's eyes stopped himself and returned to seriousness. "Look Sammy, when I do something, I do it properly. No half-assing it, that's lazy. For me, I always go the whole shebang."

'What are you saying?"

Gabriel smirked. "Well, I turned you guys into chicks, right? So that means I gave you guys everything, I didn't just do an outer makeover. You're as female on the inside as you are on the outside, lassie!"

Sam growled, stood and pulled her pants up in a motion that was so fast Gabriel scarcely had time to process it let alone catch a glimpse of anything. "You are sick, Gabriel. It's one thing to give us pretty faces and boobs, but menstrual cycles as well? That's one step too far."

"What are you gonna do?" Gabriel asked, closing the distance between them and looking up slightly to compensate for the height difference that was still somewhat significant. "Kill me?"

Sam pressed her lips together as she looked down at Gabriel. After a few moments she sighed and turned away. "No."

"Exactly." Gabriel smiled and took a step back. "You'll get used to it, Sammy, just like every other woman does."

"Don't call me 'Sammy'," Sam spat. The name coming out of anybody's mouth besides Dean's put her off, but coming out of Gabriel it disgusted her.

Gabriel nodded. "Sorry, _Sam_."

Sam couldn't take any more of this. She walked out of the bathroom leaving Gabriel alone. This feeling of being completely out of control of her own life was starting to get to her. Between demons, angels, monsters and Dean, she scarcely had the opportunity the make final decisions for herself. Now she could add Gabriel to the list of things controlling her - and he probably had more pull than all of the others combined. Would there ever be a day when she could exist in her own body without having someone mess with her? She was guessing it was unlikely.

She winced as her stomach contracted again and plodded along to the guest bedroom that she had put her things in. She and Dean always took the same rooms when they stayed the night at Bobby's; really it was her room, she had used it enough to claim it in any case, but until she and Dean actually moved in with Bobby (which she hoped they'd never have to do, the poor guy had enough of them during their short stays) it would be a fixture for guests. When she got to the room she went over to her bag, which she had thrown in the corner and pulled out a new pair of underwear. When were Dean and Cas going to get back? She just wanted the freaking Impala so she could go buy herself unhealthy food and now a packet of pads, but Dean and Cas were out having fun somewhere while she was trapped here with Bobby who wouldn't let her eat any more.

Sam growled and went back to the bathroom, finding that Gabriel had not left like she was hoping he had. Her eyebrows furrowed and she rolled her shoulders back. "Why are you still here?"

"Because you are so intense when you're angry," Gabriel answered in growl, waggling his eyebrows at her.

The younger Winchester rolled her eyes. "First of all, ew. Second of all, if you know what's good for you, you'll never look at me like that again."

Gabriel sat down on the edge of the bathtub and sighed. "You know Sam, out of your little trio I've always liked you best. You've got a good head on your shoulders."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam asked.

"That you actually use your brain. It's kind a… turn on." The angel lifted his hand and looked at his nails nonchalantly.

Sam squeezed her eyes together. "Please tell me you're not hitting on me," she said.

Gabriel chuckled. "Why, does it make you uncomfortable?"

"Very," Sam snapped.

"Why does it make you uncomfortable?" Gabriel asked, standing and moving towards Sam again. "Is it maybe because some part of you is enjoying it?"

"No it's because you're a freaking creep," Sam retorted. "You change my body without asking me or telling me, and you expect me to not only be okay with it but to respond to your flirting? You said I had a good head on my shoulders, you should be aware that I'm smarter than that."

Gabriel paused. "Good point."

"Great point."

"Well I'll leave it there for today then, since you have such a good argument. I'll respect your wishes. Until next time, Sam." He disappeared, leaving Sam to wonder what the hell just happened, and feeling like she needed to take a shower to wash off the creepy vibes Gabriel had been radiating.

* * *

Bobby walked into the kitchen to find Dean and Sam already dressed and polishing off their toast. They sat at the wooden kitchen table with empty plates in front of them and half full coffee mugs. Sam's laptop was open in front of her and Dean was just standing up from her seat where she had some newspaper clippings strewn across the table. They had their usual outfits on: thick denim and khaki jackets with plaid flannel shirts and worn blue washed denim jeans. Bobby had been asleep when Dean and Cas had got back from their 'date' and after he had given Sam the carrot she had become peculiarly cranky; as a consequence he hadn't spoken to either Winchester since the afternoon before and was surprised to see them up and about so early.

"What are you two up to?" he asked suspiciously, casting a glance at the newspaper Dean had spread over the kitchen table.

"Good morning Bobby. We're preparing to go on that hunt we found yesterday," Dean said, pulling a bag of salt out from underneath the sink where Bobby knew at least an additional ten more bags were being stored.

Sam pulled out what looked like a flat wad of something covered in plastic packaging and thrust it out at Dean. "You should keep this handy," she said exasperatedly, giving Dean a weary look.

Dean took it from Sam and examined it. "What the hell is this?" She asked, unable to figure out what the spongy contents inside this purple wrapper could possibly be or how it could help her.

"It's a sanitary pad," Sam answered. "Gabriel went and I quote, the 'whole shebang' when he changed us. You're gonna get your period sooner or later so best to keep it handy. I got mine sooner." She spoke with great irritation. The pain had lessened somewhat for her since yesterday, but she still hadn't forgiven Gabriel in the slightest or forgotten his sleazy advances.

"No," Bobby and Dean exclaimed in unison, both as shocked as each other.

Sam nodded her head solemnly. "Yes."

"The next time I see Gabriel I am going to rip his lungs out through his throat," Dean declared, stuffing the pad into her jacket pocket.

"So you're going over to Michigan then?" Bobby said, changing the subject back to the issue at hand. "That'll take you at least a week on the road."

"Yep," Dean agreed, "I think it might help us to clear our heads a bit, give us something to focus on besides these bodies."

Sam grunted. She didn't think it would be possible for her to get her mind off her body at the moment.

Bobby strolled over to the kettle and filled it up with water, then switched it on to boil. He turned back to Sam and Dean who were starting to sort their guns out at the table. "So how did you go with Cas last night?" He asked, looking pointedly at Dean.

Dean paused and then suddenly became very absorbed in loading her pistol. She didn't look up at Bobby, instead choosing to keep her focus on the gun. "It went fine."

"Obviously not good enough to get Gabriel to turn us back," Sam commented as she slid salt rounds into her shotgun.

"Look, we tried, okay?" Dean was defensive and both Sam and Bobby stared at her in bemusement for a moment before sharing a look with each other.

The kettle finished boiling and Bobby grabbed himself a mug out of one of the cupboards. He put a few spoons of ground coffee into it and double the amount of sugar. Something told him he was going to need extra-strength today.

The sisters continued prepping their weapons, loading guns, sharpening knives, and stocking up on any useful supplies from Bobby's expansive stash. It took them about an hour before they decided they were ready to hit the road and Bobby saw them to the door wishing them the best of luck.

"Just try not to get yerselves killed, okay?" He stood in the doorway, watching Sam and Dean put their things into the hidden compartment in the boot of the Impala.

"We'll be fine Bobby," Dean assured as she slotted the last knife into place and slammed the boot shut.

Sam dusted off her hands and nodded to Bobby. "See ya, Bobby."

"See ya Sam, Dean," Bobby replied, nodding back at the two of them.

The Winchesters slid into the polished black Impala and a moment later the loud growl of the engine roared into life and Dean flicked on the ignition. Within moments the car was pulling out of the scrapyard kicking up dust into the warm air behind it. Bobby retreated back into the house and closed the door. For a temporary amount of time, peace returned to Sioux Falls.

"So have we got some dead mans blood?" Dean asked as the Impala coasted down the highway. They were fairly certain they were hunting a vampire.

"Yep, a few gallons of it in the back. Can't be too careful." Sam shifted in her seat and groaned. "My vagina feels like it's going to fall out."

Dean did a doubletake at Sam. "What are you- too much information, dude!"

Sam glared at Dean. "Easy for you to say, you're not the one in throbbing pain."

"No, I'm just the one being slammed together with an angel against my will." Dean stared out at the road, which was empty except for the Impala. The highway was skirted by desert and there was very little to look at besides the steaming asphalt that ran out in front of them into the distance. The sun beat down on the black metal, heating the two women inside uncomfortably. Sam rolled down the window, which let in a breeze that ruffled her hair. The seats began to stick to their backs in the heat, and the smell of baking leather filled the car. Dean removed her jacket, leaving her in just her black t-shirt.

They both sighed simultaneously; it was going to be a long week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha! So both versions of Flipside are now current at chapter 10. From now on I'll be uploading on here and FF.net at the same pace. Hope you've been enjoying the story so far!
> 
> **Amber*****


	11. Dream On

The Impala pulled into a rural gas station on the side of the highway and Sam got out of the car. She walked around to the hole for the petrol tank and started getting prepared to refuel.

It was a small pit stop gas station just off the side of the highway. A large sign displaying gas prices and deals for food purchases stood out the front, while the gas pumps sat in rows underneath the shelter of a large roof to protect them from rain damage. Several cars including the Impala were parked next to the pumps or in front of the shop. There were several oil stains soaked into the concrete that paved the ground of the station and the pungent smell of gasoline filled the air.

"Remember to put fifty litres worth in her. We don't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere on an empty tank," Dean's voice called out from the drivers side window. After reiterating the amount of petrol required to her sister, Dean turned to the car's stereo and cranked up the Metallica song that was playing. She didn't have to look to her side to see Castiel poof into the passenger seat in her peripheral vision. "You know Sam is sitting there, she'll be wanting that seat back in a few minutes."

Castiel disappeared and reappeared in the centre of the backseat. "Is this better?" She inquired to the back of Dean's head.

Dean turned around in her seat. "You could have just gotten out of the car and then gotten into the back seat."

"I could have, but I didn't want to," Castiel replied.

The hunter rolled her eyes and turned back to the front. "So where have you been anyway?" she asked.

"I've been looking for Gabriel again, but he's hiding from me." Castiel looked out the window, seemingly embarrassed by this. She didn't know exactly what she was going to do once she had found Gabriel, if she did, but for some reason she just couldn't let this go.

"Don't worry about him," advised Dean, watching Cas through the rearview mirror. "There's no point." Cas didn't respond, instead remaining silent and keeping her eyes on the window. Dean glanced out the window to see where Sam was – she was still in the shop, waiting in line to pay for the gas. Dean bit her lip and hesitated for a moment before her next sentence: "Cas, come back to the front for a sec."

Suddenly Cas was back in the front passenger seat, staring at Dean quizzically. She didn't ask why Dean had asked her to move again though.

Dean reached out a hand and captured Cas' in it. "So what did you think of our date?" she asked tentatively.

"It was… nice," Castiel answered carefully. "What about you?"

Dean swallowed. If she was being truthful, that had been one of the most relaxing dates she had ever been on - and not just because it was a much deserved and overdue break from hunting. Going on a date with Cas was like going on a date with her best friend – because, well, Cas _was_ her best friend. They didn't have to put on an act around each other to be liked, because they already did like each other. They didn't have to hide anything because there was nothing to hide. Dean could be herself completely with Cas and vise-versa. They could just be with each other without having to worry about trivialities. It was something that Dean had never thought about in depth before, but now she was starting to realize just how special the relationship she and Cas shared was.

Dean squeezed Cas' hand. "Good. It was good."

"Where are you going now?" Cas asked, glancing out the window to see Sam had made it to the counter and was handing the cashier some money.

"We're going to Michigan, found a hunt down there. We think it's a vampire." Dean ran her thumb over the back of Cas' hand unconsciously.

Sam emerged from the shop, holding two bags of chips and two soft drinks. Cas immediately moved to the backseat, leaving Dean's hand to flop down on the passenger seat before she realized what had happened. She pressed her lips together and put both her hands on the steering wheel just as Sam opened the door and dropped a packet of chips in her lap.

"I bought us some snacks and drinks," Sam said, putting one of the bottles in the detachable drink holder. She looked around for somewhere she could wedge her own drink, but couldn't find anywhere the drink wasn't sure to fall over. Then a thought occurred to her – she could hold the bottle between her legs now without it being super uncomfortable. So maybe there were perks to having lady parts.

The sound of the engine roaring into life temporarily drowned out the music playing on the stereo; Dean opened her packet of chilli chips and stuffed a few into her mouth before releasing the handbrake and pulling the Impala out of the gas station. "How many miles do you think are left from here?" Dean asked, looking out at the highway for a sign.

Sam crunched a chip. "I have no idea."

"There is approximately five hundred and fifty-four miles to Michigan," Castiel informed from the backseat.

There was a retching sound and Sam coughed as she tried to get her chips down before she choked on them anymore. "How long have you been there?"

"Since you went to pay for the gas," Dean answered for her.

"Were either of you planning on telling me?" Sam asked hoarsely, still recovering from her near-suffocation.

Dean and Cas answered in unison: "No."

The younger Winchester rolled her eyes and unscrewed the lid from her lemonade. The Impala growled as it drove down the road, which still didn't have much scenery. They had now reached a point where instead of desert they were surrounded by fields and every now and again a herd of grazing cattle could be seen wandering around their paddocks - but that was about the only interesting thing to look at. The rest of the landscape was grassland. Boring. Green. Grassland. If they had of been playing I Spy they probably would have ended up picking nothing but various trees they passed. In addition it had only gotten hotter since they had left Bobby's, and the windows on both Sam and Dean's sides were open in an attempt to maximize airflow within the vehicle; it wasn't that effective. They had both stripped down to their shirts and Sam had tied her hair up in a high ponytail to get it off her neck. Dean had been considering taking her shirt off altogether, but then remembered she couldn't because it wouldn't be appropriate; this lead her to question exactly why it was inappropriate given that the only perceivable difference between now and before was that she had breasts, and even so pectorals weren't that different to breasts in the first place. It seemed a strange double standard and particularly unfair at a time like this, but Dean was too proud and too worried Sam would give her crap if she tried it considering how she herself had reacted the day they were trying on bras. Besides all this the drive had been pretty monotonous so far. When they were about half a day out from Sioux Falls Bobby had rung to inform them he had finally left to follow after them. It always seemed to be an unspoken agreement that when they worked together they each left at whatever time suited them. Bobby would meet them at whatever hotel they chose to stay in, and then they would go out and find the vampire.

"Hopefully this thing is by itself, I hate taking down entire nests," said Dean, adjusting the rearview mirror so she could see the road behind them and not just Cas' face.

Sam lowered the lemonade bottle and nodded. "Either way, at least Bobby is going to be helping us out."

"He'll definitely be an asset if we're dealing with a nest,' Dean agreed.

Cas sat in the back silently listening on as Sam and Dean continued talking logistics of the upcoming hunt. Usually she was more interested in these conversations but, yet again, she had come to the conclusion that she just couldn't stop thinking about Gabriel. Perhaps it was because it was one of her kind, and the thought of one of her kind endangering her friends was always something that was hard to shake. Perhaps it was just because it was Gabriel, and aside from his antics he seemed to be the only angel that was truly on the same side as Cas, in the middle, with the humans. Most likely it was just that she was really pissed at her big brother, but it would take a lot to get her to admit that.

"Psst!"

Cas whipped her head to the left to see Gabriel sitting next to her, behind Sam. He grinned widely and placed his hands behind his head. "So how are things going, Cas?"

Castiel raised an eyebrow and looked back into the front. Sam and Dean hadn't noticed Gabriel's voice, or the new presence in the car. They were still talking away like normal, as if the only other person in the car was Cas. This was strange, the Winchesters were always very perceptive and usually they would have picked up Gabriel's presence the moment he appeared – especially since he was talking.

Gabriel followed Cas' gaze and saw what she was looking at. "I've muted us, they can't hear a thing we're saying. To them you're just sitting in the back drifting off into deep contemplation as usual."

That made sense. Castiel turned back to Gabriel. "Why are you here?"

"Is that any way to greet your brother?" Gabriel frowned. "I'm not allowed to check in with my family?"

Cas rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you don't give two craps about the Host, or me."

Gabriel shook his head and made a buzzer sound. "Wrong! I don't care about the Host, that's true, they can all go to hell for all I care, but I do care about you Cas. You're different. You're the only one who's on the same side as me, it makes me feel protective of you little sis."

Cas held eye contact with Gabriel for a few moments before looking away out at the road. "The feeling's mutual." That was probably as close to saying 'I love you too' as an angel ever got.

"So tell me how things have been going with the new girlfriend," Gabriel tried again, this time upping the facetiousness.

"Fine," Cas snapped, not appreciating the insinuation that Dean was her girlfriend.

Gabriel smiled. "I sense hostility. Has something gone wrong?"

Castiel inwardly sighed. Gabriel knew perfectly well nothing had gone wrong, he just wasn't going to stop probing her for her own account until she told him. "Nothing went wrong," she said flatly, "It was a nice date. We talked, we ate, we went back to Bobby's and called it a night."

"I think you missed something," said Gabriel, "I think there might have been a little kissing action that you left out. But I'll forgive you."

Castiel's cheeks reddened. She completely turned away from Gabriel, giving him a view of the back of her head and refused to respond to his comment. Gabriel chuckled. "It's okay Cas, I'm happy for you!"

"Not happy enough to switch us back," Castiel rebutted, still not turning around.

"I want to see how this plays out," Gabriel explained. He looked over at Dean who's mouth was still running full-pelt at Sam. "Things finally seem to be heating up!"

"What don't you get about all of us telling you we want our normal bodies back?" Castiel shouted, turning back to Gabriel angrily.

Gabriel lowered his hands into his lap ans sat forward. "Whoa, calm down Cas. I know you want back to normal, I do, but this is important-"

"No it's not!" Castiel glared hotly at the archangel. "We're not game pieces for you to move around on a board, we have feelings. By changing us and stripping us of our most basic normality you're essentially taking away our free will. You're being just as bad as Lucifer!"

Gabriel was taken aback. He looked at Castiel like she had just whacked him in the face with a baseball bat. "I am nothing like Lucifer! For one thing, Luci doesn't give a _shit_ about _anybody_ , I do. I'm not going on a planet-wide purge, I'm not raising hell to earth and I am certainly not acting like a petulant little dick just because daddy doesn't love me anymore. So you **never** say I'm like Lucifer again, because I can end you just as fast and just as easy as I can end them." Gabriel pointed at Sam and Dean sitting in the front, completely oblivious to their conversation.

Castiel pressed her lips together. "Stop threatening me, Gabriel. I know what you can do, you don't have to keep telling me. Everybody knows. I-I just wish you'd use your powers for good instead of evil."

The sound of laughing filled the car, loud enough to drown out Dean and Sam's conversation completely. It was strange watching the two not react to the sound. "Oh, I'm using them for good, Cas. I'm using them for a very good cause. You see her?" Gabriel pointed to the back of Sam's seat. "She had me intrigued from the very beginning. I want her – _him_ – more than I've ever wanted anyone. And you've wanted her." Gabriel pointed at Dean. "Just as much. The cause is good because _we are the cause_. This. Is. For. Us."

The younger angel followed Gabriel's pointing and then turned back to him. "Gabriel, if you were romantically interested in Sam – why didn't you just ask him instead of turning us female."

"Because I was too nervous, okay?" Gabriel shrunk down in his seat. For all the smart-assery and false bravado he was exuding, he really was just covering up the fact he was out of his element.

"Isn't that right, Cas?"

Cas whipped her head around to Dean who was addressing her. "Uh, what? Sorry I wasn't listening."

"I said you'll scope the place out for us first if there's a nest, won't you?" Dean repeated, keeping her eyes on the road.

"Oh. Yeah." Cas answered distractedly. She looked to her left, but Gabriel wasn't there anymore. It should have been obvious he had gone since she had been unmuted to the girls in the front.

Sam turned around in her seat and saw Cas looking at the empty seat next to her. "Everything okay back there?"

Cas turned to Sam. "Yeah, everything is fine."

"We probably woke her up from a nice nap," said Dean.

"Probably," laughed Sam.

* * *

They arrived in Michigan both exhausted and bored out of their minds. The event of coming back to civilization seemed to breath new life into the trio. Sam and Dean booked a room in a motel-hotel called Yuma's which was a about ten blocks away from the crime scene. The room was clean, better than the last one they had stayed in. The walls were painted a dark brown infused with gold flecks, the floor was lined with cream linoleum and the counter was made out of a rich oak wood. The bathroom stood off to the side, pretty standard in it's white tiling, small bath-shower hybrid and alabaster toilet. The beds wore mostly grey bedclothes with white sheets and the bar fridge next to the counter gave off a loud humming sound.

Sam threw her bag on the ground and fell face-first onto the bed. "We really don't get paid enough for this."

"Tell me about it," said Dean, putting her bag on the table and pulling her phone out. She dialed a number and then pressed the phone to her ear. "Bobby? Yeah we just booked into a motel. You'll be here in a few hours? Awesome. Just knock on the door; we'll let you in. Okay, see you later Bobby, drive safely."

Dean placed the phone on the table and yawned. She walked over to the bed and collapsed on it, and within minutes both Winchester's were completely enveloped in sleep and were snoring away.

Dean found herself sitting on the hood of the Impala, for some strange reason drinking a cup of orange juice instead of a beer. It was cool but she was still only wearing her black shirt. It was night, and she was somewhere in a field where the stars could be seen twinkling in the sky so brightly they lit up the earth on their own. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of her own breathing. She sighed in contentment.

"Dean, we need to talk."

Dean was startled and irritated to find Cas standing in front of her, looking at her completely serious. "Why are you here?"

"So Sam can't hear our conversation," explained Cas, walking over and sitting next to Dean on the Impala.

"You really have to stop invading my dreams," Dean grumbled, taking a long chug of her orange juice.

Castiel looked up at the sky. "Trust me, you wouldn't want Sam to hear what I'm about to tell you. At least not yet, anyway."

Dean sighed again, this time in resignation. "Lay it on me."

"Gabriel wants Sam."

"Wants Sam for what?" Dean ran a hand through her short hair.

"Romantically," Cas clarified.

"What?!"

Cas looked away from the stars at Dean. "We have to get Sam to fall for Gabriel."

"We're not doing anything else! I'm not doing anything for that son of a bitch."

"Do it for me then."

Dean locked eyes with Cas. "What's in it for you?"

Cas was reluctant to say _you_ even if it was true. "Nothing, just that perhaps it will end this conundrum."

Dean rolled her eyes. "Personally I think this mess is just getting more convoluted by the minute."

"That's Gabriel for you."

There was a silence, then suddenly Dean burst out: "Why? Why do we have to do _this_ as well as now? How many more demands is he going to make? We're not slaves, Cas, we're not at his beck and call. Sam has no obligation to give him anything, including attention, and neither do we."

Castiel nodded. "I completely agree with you." Her eyes lingered on Dean's lips. She bent over and pushed Dean gently onto her back until she was flat against the Impala and kissed her passionately. "But this time it's not his demand, it's _mine_."

Dean startled awake and groaned when she realized she was back in reality, lying on the bed in the motel room.

"That must have been some girl you were dreaming about, you were squirming and moaning like nobody's business just before you woke up," Sam teased as she stirred a coffee she had just made for herself up near the counter.

Dean didn't acknowledge Sam's comment and dragged herself off the bed to go to the toilet. They had arrived at the hotel in the late afternoon, but now it was pitch black outside. Unlike her dream the fluorescent lights all along the suburban streets drowned out the stars and left the night in a neon glow. Cas was nowhere to be found, she seemed to have decided seeing Dean outside of her dreams this soon was just a little too dangerous. She groggily walked up to the basin and turned on the tap, splashing her face with cool water.

She had a craving for orange juice.


	12. The Coercion Conundrum

"If I were a boy…"

Dean walked into the room and threw her keys on the counter. "Did you seriously just sing that?"

A clunking sound reverberated through the hotel room as Sam dropped the brush she had been singing into and a dark blush rose to her cheeks as she looked down at Dean from her position atop one of the hotel beds, with scant clothing on besides her white night-shirt and underwear.

"I mean don't get me wrong," Dean continued as she took off her jacket and hung it on the back of one of the hotel chairs, "I respect Beyonce, I do – who wouldn't when she has an ass like that? But _If I Were a Boy_? Seems a bit ironic even for you."

The younger Winchester lowered herself off the bed and pulled her hair tie off her wrist. "I was bored, okay?" She began to tie her hair up, all the while desperately trying to avoid direct eye contact with Dean.

Dean flopped herself down in the chair she had hung her jacket on. "Yeah, well next time you want to do that at least sing some Van Halen or something. Anyway, Bobby rang me when I was out refuelling baby, said he should arrive here any minute now."

Sam looked at Dean as she pulled her jeans on. "Great, a little warning would have been nice. I'm not exactly ready for someone to walk in the door."

Dean laughed. "Yeah, I saw. Nice underwear by the way, I didn't know you wrote your name on them."

"Haha, very funny." Sam shot Dean glare and picked up her plaid shirt before walking into the bathroom. "Jerk!"

"Bitch!" Dean watched her disappear into the next room before turning her attention to the scratchie she had bought while she was out. Sam didn't like it when Dean needlessly wasted their money on things like this, but Dean didn't care. It was the most positive excitement she got, besides a good meal once and a while, so she was going to indulge. She scratched away the coverings and found that she had won twenty dollars. Not much, but if she was to be honest who ever really won big? She stashed the ticket in her wallet and made a mental note to pull it out next time she went to get gas to claim her prize.

There was a knock at the door and Dean's ears perked like a dog's at the sound. She stood and answered the door to find Bobby, sweating and tired, had arrived like he said he would. "Hey."

"You just gonna make me stand out here in this blistering heat?" Bobby asked, taking his cap off and wiping the sweat from his brow.

Dean stepped aside and let him through just as Sam exited the bathroom. "Oh, hey Bobby. Did you have an okay trip?"

"If you call sweating like a pig and having my brain numbed by extremely boring radio music, then yeah, my trip went just fine." Bobby sat down at the table and inspected the room while Dean and Sam got together their duffle bags.

"We've pretty much dug up all we can so far. Went out and made the proper investigations already, talked to the witnesses, they didn't tell us anything we don't already know – except that a new girl moved to town a few weeks ago and started picking up all the chicks. We think she might be our vampire," Dean explained as she slung her duffle bag over her shoulder.

Bobby nodded. "A lesbian vampire, huh? This job never gets dull."

Dean smirked and picked up her keys. "No, but we have the car trips to make up for that."

* * *

Gabriel peered through the window of the empty hotel room. Sam, Dean and Bobby had left a few minutes prior, and the only remnants of their presence were the maps and newspaper clippings pinned to the wall from their research. He sighed and threw a gumball into his mouth. Not only was he becoming a pathetic, hopelessly infatuated dong, but this was also starting to get incredibly boring. He thought the Winchester's would have fought against him more, or at least for a bit longer anyway. Instead they seemed to be determined to get on with their usual routine to spite him – and spiting him they were. They weren't letting him have his way at all. He was just trying to have a little fun, just trying to get a bit of Sam's attention. Was that so bad? Gabriel didn't think so. He didn't see himself as the bad guy - but they did. They always did, despite the fact he had proved to them on multiple occasions that he was just trying to push them in the right direction.

_The right direction._

Now there was a laughable concept. Seemed like any direction taken by the Winchester's was inevitably the wrong one: so trying to set them right was redundant. In fact Gabriel was pretty convinced that the only reason they hated him so much was that his good intentions always led them to screw themselves over again - just like everything else did; and it was just so much easier to blame him for their downfalls rather than admit that maybe he was actually right and their screw ups were their own damn fault. I mean, it's not like they tried that hard to avoid screwing themselves over. The concept of self-preservation seemed to be completely lost on the lot of them – and that included Cas. So why was he stuck with the big 'enemy' sign continuously slung around his neck? Why was destiny's hatred of the Winchesters on him? Hate the game, not the player.

Still, for what it was worth they had been pretty tolerant this time around, all things considered. They could have very well thrown the biggest hissy fit in the universe until he got sick of listening to their whining and turned them back. Once upon a time they probably would have, too. However they elected to let him have his way without much fuss, which showed just how much they had matured over the years. Gone were the times of reckless deal making – well, _completely reckless_ deal making anyway – of the Winchesters. Finished were the pointless hours of angsting over blows of fate of which they had little say in and no control. Now they were finally lying in the beds they had made for themselves when they had let their ridiculously attractive faces become infamous amongst the hosts of heaven and hell. Gabriel was just revelling in the aftermath.

So now that Gabriel had justified to himself his innocence and pondered over the Winchester's growth, there was but one unanswered question left on his mind – how was he going to woo Sam? The girl was too smart and too classy for cheap romancing, too disdainful of him to simply talk to and too indifferent to make threats (not that Gabriel would stoop to that level, he was better than that, or he at least liked to think he was). So where did that leave him? At a loss, basically. For once in his life this was a situation that couldn't just be remedied with his angelic powers; for the first time, he was at the mercy of a human. While kind of kinky, it wasn't something he was particularly happy about. The waiting game was one he was loath to play. And waiting guaranteed nothing anyway. The ball was in Sam's court, and Sam didn't even know she had a court or a ball in it for that matter. At this rate, he was going to get nowhere.

"Staring in peoples windows is creepy, even by human standards."

Gabriel turned around and found Cas staring at him with a hard expression. "Leave me alone."

Castiel ignored him and walked forward. "I've told Dean."

"Told Dean what, genius?" Gabriel popped a bubble of gum in Cas face and waited for her to respond indifferently.

"That you want our help to get Sam interested in you. Personally I think this would have been more suited to the cupids but I guess even you have higher standards than those guys." Castiel smiled, for some reason finding her comment about the cupids quite funny.

Gabriel accidentally swallowed his gum in shock. "YOU WHAT? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?"

Cas frowned. "I thought that was what you would want."

A gust of wind rushed between the two angels and ruffled their hair. Gabriel sighed and tucked some of his golden locks behind his ear. "Just because I tell you doesn't mean I want something from you."

"Oh."

"Oh." Gabriel started pacing up and down in front of the window. "You outed me and all you can say is 'oh'. Dean is definitely going to tell Sam, and then what's she going to do? Laugh in my face, probably, or start trying to hit on me so I think she's interested so I'll turn them back, and then as soon as I do drop me like a hot coal."

"Why would Sam do that?" Cas asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Because that's how women work," Gabriel replied, saying it slowly as if this was common knowledge to everyone.

Cas straightened her head and knit her eyes together. "But Sam isn't a woman, you changed her into one. I don't think all women are that shallow anyway, though."

Gabriel stopped and looked at Cas. She was right; Sam was a guy not a woman. "Hmm, I don't know then."

"I haven't exactly got Dean to agree to help yet, but I think I have him at least half-convinced," Cas added.

"And how did you manage to do that?" Gabriel queried, genuinely surprised Cas could even slightly convince Dean to let Sam have anything to do with him.

Cas shrugged nonchalantly. "I have my ways."

Gabriel grinned and laughed. "Oh, I'm sure you do Cas."

"Anyway, I think I have a plan," Cas continued, moving the conversation along.

Gabriel crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Cas pointedly. "Okay, shoot. I'm all ears."

* * *

"Dean, watch out!"

Dean whipped her head around to see the vampire leaping towards her. Clutching the butchery cleaver she had acquired from the kitchen in a moment of desperation, she swung it as hard as she could while squeezing her eyes shut. She felt blood squirt over her face and heard the thud of the girls head hit the floor, followed by a large crash as the body fell after it. Sam gasped as she tried to catch her breath; exhausted from the goose chase she had had with the vampire that had gone around the entire house.

From the corner Bobby got up off the floor and dusted off his vest. The vampire had knocked him unconscious for a few moments while he and Dean had been attempting to tackle it to the ground so it would stop chasing Sam. He saw the head and body and straightened his cap. "Well, are we gonna clean up this mess or leave it for the cops?"

"Leave it for the cops. I'm taking the cleaver though, it's too obvious," Dean said, tucking the weapon into her inner jacket pocket. "We don't need the pigs on us again."

The three hunters quickly retreated from the house. Dean and Bobby went to retrieve the Impala while Sam stayed behind to do once last scope of the place in case they had missed any other vampires that may have been lurking around. Luckily it hadn't been a nest, only a single vampire, but it never hurt to double check. After all, a half-assed job was really a job not worth having done.

As she walked around the side of the house, looking at the bushes in case anything was concealed amongst them, she walked directly into somebody who she hadn't seen. Startled, she jumped back and raised her gun, only to pause and lower it straight after she had done so. "Cas, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to take you somewhere," Cas said, eyeing the pistol in Sam's hand.

Sam flicked her ponytail over her shoulder behind her back. "Where? And what about Dean and Bobby - how will they even know where we are?"

"You'll find out when we get there, and I left a note on the car for Bobby and Dean. They think I'm taking you to buy dinner." Cas stared unblinkingly at the hunter.

Dean and Bobby would never buy that, and neither did Sam, but she thought she'd play along to see where this was going. "We're going to buy dinner like this?" Sam gestured to her dirty clothes. Cas walked forward and touched her: instantly washing her of the dirt, rips and blood that had covered her a moment before. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"So do I get a say in this?" Sam asked, slipping her gun into its holster.

Cas shook her head. "No, not really." And before Sam had time to object, Cas had pressed her fingers to Sam's forehead and they had vanished, leaving a few kicked up leaves in their wake.

* * *

 

**To make up for my possible erratic updating have a drawing I did of female Demon!Dean :)**

**This is also my headcanon for how I envision female Dean to look.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Hello!**  
>     
>  **I just want to let you guys know that in 2 days I am going in for some jaw surgery. While I'm pretty sure it will be quite minor and I'll recover fairly quickly after it's done, I'm giving notice that for the next 2 weeks at least there is a good chance I will not be updating this regularly.**
> 
> **I am not discontinuing the story, nor am I putting it on hiatus. This story has been in progress for quite a long time, through the previous surgery I had about 6 months ago, and I would have completed it sooner had my personal life not been so shaken at the time and my health so critical. In light of this (specifically to those who have been reading from the beginning and have stuck with me through the long gap in between updates during this time) I am going to try my best to see this through to the finish without any more prolonged breaks. However I cannot account for how I will be feeling after the surgery, so I am leaving this authors note as a fair warning that while I fully want and intend to keep updating, there may be unforeseen circumstances in the next few weeks that prevent me from doing so.**
> 
> **Thank you for understanding, my lovelies.**
> 
> **Hope you enjoyed this chapter and hope to see you soon after my surgery!**
> 
>   **Amber*****


	13. Pure as Salt

Gabriel picked a flower from the rose bush that stood in front of him. The blood-red petals exuded a sweet aroma into the air that reminded him somewhat of boiled rose-flavoured lollies – sans the artificial sweetener. Fireflies floated just above his head; he turned and caught sight of his reflection in the shimmering pond water. The moon glowed gently and somewhere in the distance birdsong could be heard echoing through the trees.

A grunt sounded from a chair a few meters away, where Sam was sitting with her legs crossed in an unamused fashion. She tried once more to remove the flower crown that had been adhered to her head by some sort of incongruous magic, but failed again to get it to budge. Meanwhile, Castiel stood off to the side, examining a rather large-eyed squirrel that was perched on a tree branch feasting on an acorn. She was oblivious to both Sam's exasperation and Gabriel's indifference.

"What the hell is going on?" Sam demanded, tugging at the flower crown with all her might.

Gabriel smiled and walked over, handing the rose he had picked to her. "Whatever you want, baby."

Sam looked at the rose and then at Gabriel. "I want this thing off my head," she barked, using both hands to pry it off.

A nod from Gabriel and the offending headdress disappeared. "Anything else?"

The younger Winchester rubbed her head to make sure the flower crown was gone. "I'm hungry," she mumbled, grabbing her hair and putting it back in the ponytail it had been in earlier.

Suddenly a table was in front of her, set with a plate and glass. Gabriel stood to attention wearing a waiter's outfit. "What'll it be?"

Sam sighed and rested her elbows on the table. "Gabriel, chill. You want me to engage with you? Stop being so weird and just sit down and talk to me. This is getting ridiculous."

Gabriel deflated slightly and zapped himself into his casual clothes. Half an hour earlier Castiel had appeared with Sam in tow, as planned, and Gabriel had set to work conjuring up anything and everything Sam said she wanted (and a few additional things – a la flower crown) to get on her good side. He had done exactly what Castiel had told him to, but so far Sam hadn't been impressed and had only become disgruntled by the lavish attempt to win her affection.

"I thought you wouldn't want to talk to me," Gabriel admitted, sitting down on a chair he materialised on the opposite side of the table.

"I don't really," Sam replied, "But since Cas dragged me here I don't have much of a choice but to put up with you."

Gabriel frowned. "I really rub you the wrong way, don't I?"

Sam looked at him levelly. "Just a little. Look, I don't hate you, Gabriel, you're cool when you want to be, but god you're also an obnoxious asshole."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Gabriel said, grinning but not really feeling very happy about the comment.

"That's what I mean," Sam continued, "You just can't admit you have faults. It's like when you wouldn't take a side during the whole apocalypse thing – you're too scared to be honest with people because they might disagree. You won't commit to anything. It's hard for people to trust you when they know you could turn around at any time and decide you're going to move on to something more interesting."

The forest around the two angels and hunter vanished, to be replaced with a weathered warehouse with rusted corrugated iron walls and a dirty concrete floor. The table and chairs Sam and Gabriel sat at were the only thing remaining. Castiel blinked for a few moments in surprise at the disappearance of the little animal she had been studying so intently, and turned to focus her energies on the only other two beings in the room.

Gabriel looked around the warehouse and then focused back on Sam. "There, I'm being honest. There's nothing here, it's just a warehouse."

Sam glanced around the empty metal room and nodded. "Well, it's a start."

"Well what else do you want?" Gabriel asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It's not about what _I_ want," Sam said, "You're so indecisive you don't even know why you turned us." The younger Winchester took this opportunity to shoot a glance at Cas, who didn't respond to the action if she did see it.

A silence fell over the warehouse and Gabriel ran a hand through his hair, staring silently at the hunter as if trying to decipher her mind just by what he could see outwardly. "How would you know?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "You're not that hard to read."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes and turned to Cas. "Can you give us a minute?"

Cas nodded and vanished, leaving Sam and Gabriel by themselves.

"Elaborate for me, Sam. How exactly am I undecided on why I turned you?" Gabriel asked.

Sam leaned forward conspiratorially. "Because you haven't been able to give us a straight answer on why you did, besides being bored. I for one don't buy boredom as your deciding factor." She smiled and then sat back again confidently.

God, she was good. It was hard to give witty rebuttals when your conversational partner could see right through you. Gabriel smiled and waggled his eyebrows in mischievousness. "So maybe there was another reason. If you're so smart, tell me what it is." He almost laughed at the look on Sam's face – as confident as she was acting, she had obviously not expected the onus of explanation to be turned on her.

"I don't know," she admitted, "I only know that it's not solely boredom."

The archangel smirked. "I'm not as easy to read as you'd like to think, chickie." He looked into Sam's hazel-green eyes and chuckled. "But if you must know, the reason is you."

"Me?" Sam was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"It's pretty simple, really. That flirting in the bathroom the other day? Not just for show." Gabriel stood up and started pacing. "Now that the cat is out of the bag, I suppose you'll tell me to shove it where the sun don't shine."

The walls of the warehouse made a crunching noise in response to winds that must have been blowing outside. The sound of wobbling metal seemed to jolt Sam into a new awareness of her surroundings – not that there was much surrounding her. "Could we go to a diner or something?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Why not? I could go for some pancakes." The archangel walked over and touched Sam on the shoulder, and a moment later they were sitting in a booth of a nondescript Americana diner. They were sitting opposite each other, and somehow Gabriel was already holding a menu that he had procured from what Sam could only imagine to be his ass. "What do you think, maple pancakes or blueberry?"

"Why not blueberry pancakes with maple syrup?" Sam ventured, looking up above the counter at the specials. "I really want a BLT*."

"Genius," Gabriel said, snapping his menu closed. "Blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and a BLT it is!" He stood up and walked to the counter, putting in the order and slapped a few notes down in front of the attendant.

Sam watched him as he talked to the man who was writing down the order on a sticky note. She couldn't help noticing the relaxed manner of Gabriel's body language. One thing that Sam's life sorely lacked was a person who was laidback and easy-going - a person who just wanted to have fun without focusing on the negatives. Dean and Cas and Bobby and everybody else were always gloomy in their ways, for whatever reason, and it became grating after awhile. Gabriel on the other hand couldn't give two craps about anything and while as Sam had said earlier, that made him an obnoxious, rather capricious asshole, it simultaneously made him quite refreshing to be around. A strange juxtaposition if there ever was one.

Gabriel came back to the booth and slid himself back into his seat. "So now that lunch is taken care of, where were we? Ah, yes, why I turned you into girls. I think my previous answer speaks for itself."

"Look, what would it take to make you happy?" Sam asked, not wanting to address the topic.

The archangel smiled. "I just want a chance with you, that would make me happy."

Sam couldn't fend off the blush that rose to her cheeks. " _Another_ deal? Oh no, I'm not making any mor-"

"No deals. I'm not asking anything of you except that you give me an honest go. I'll turn you guys back whether I can win you over or not." Gabriel picked up the salt and peppershakers that were off to the side and placed them in the middle of the table.

"Really? No catches?" Sam prodded; sure that Gabriel was just telling her what she wanted to hear.

Gabriel nodded. "No catches. I don't want to force you into anything, I want you to want it as well, because what's the fun in only half of the team enjoying the game?" He smirked and pointed to the shakers. "These shakers are us, I'm the salt and you're the pepper –"

"Why are you the salt?"

"Because I'm an angel and angels are pure, well, we're supposed to be anyway. Salt is white, you see the connection." Gabriel continued, "Separately, I think we're good, but together?" He poured some salt and pepper into is palm, picked some of it up with his finger and sucked it off. "Tasty."

Sam was silent for a moment ate she thought about what Gabriel was requesting. At this point it seemed like he didn't really have any more leverage anyway for more deals, and giving him a shot couldn't possibly be that bad. "Okay."

"Okay?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Are we agreeing?"

"Don't push it," Sam retorted, immediately wondering if she had made the biggest mistake of her life.

Gabriel grinned and sat back with his hands behind his head. "Wouldn't dream of it."

* * *

Cas sat in the hotel room, staring at an ant that was carrying a breadcrumb from one side of the floor to the other. She hadn't heard back from Gabriel yet, so she assumed she wasn't needed.

Dean walked out of the bathroom with a towel around her waist – she was used to wearing towel this way when she got out of the shower so she hadn't clued in to the fact she should probably cover her chest. Castiel looked up and watched her and she made her way over to the bed and picked up her shirt.

"Hello Dean."

Dean jumped and threw the shirt into the air. "GAH!" She turned around and put an arm over her chest to cover her breasts. "When did you get back?"

"About half an hour ago."

The hunter rolled her eyes and turned back around, pulling on her short quickly to cover herself up. "So where is Sam?"

"She's with Bobby," Cas lied, "They went for a drive around town."

Dean walked over to Cas and took a seat beside her, still donning the bath towel around her waist. "So why are you here?"

Cas shrugged and looked off into space.

Dean sighed and walked over to the bed. Throwing caution to the wind she dropped her towel and pulled on her underwear and pants. Cas would have seen it all before anyway, she was sure, and she couldn't be bothered shooing her away to get dressed. She turned around and found Cas standing directly in front of her, with barely a hairs breadth separating their faces. "You okay there?"

The angel nodded and stared into Dean's eyes without moving away.

It didn't take much for Dean to get the gist. In one swift movement she had put her hands on Cas' shoulders, span her around, pushed her onto the bed and pounced like an overenthusiastic tiger. Hands were interwoven into chocolate hair; lips were meshed together in a hungry meeting of tongue, teeth and flesh; trench coats were pushed off shoulders; ties were ripped off necks; fingers teased the waistline of jeans; hands ventured up the back of shirts; soft moans and giggles were let slip.

Then suddenly Dean registered what she was actually doing and jumped off the bed, panting in arousal, surprise and somewhat in fear. Castiel propped herself up on her elbows, her trench coat now just a pile of fabric underneath her and the top buttons of her white shirt in disarray. "What's wrong?"

Instead of answering, Dean picked up her jacket that had been thrown on Sam's bed and ran out of the hotel room, leaving Cas sprawled on the bed and wondering what had just happened. She let herself fall back on the bed and closed her eyes. What had she done wrong this time? Dean seemed perfectly okay with her advances in her dream, and Dean had actually been the initiator that time in the car. It just didn't make sense. She hoped that this would become easier soon, or she might just move back up to heaven and try to forget about this whole 'emotion' thing for good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **To Be Continued…**
> 
> **Hey people!**
> 
> **So even though it's only been 5 days since my surgery I'm feeling pretty damn good! Of course I can't chew yet, but I'm almost back to normal – much less intense than I thought it would be!**
> 
> **So here is a new chapter for you lovelies! Let the destiel and sabriel recommence!**
> 
> *BLT = Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich for anybody who hasn't heard of the dish before. 
> 
>  
> 
> **Amber*****


	14. Messing With Angels

A million different thoughts were running through Dean's head as she drove down the dull suburban street. Perspiration dripped down her neck from the insistent heat that baked the asphalt and turned the Impala itself into a makeshift oven. She hadn't bothered to remove her jacket – she had been in too much of a hurry to get out of the hotel room and away from Cas, and then she found herself driving in an arbitrary location to an arbitrary destination and she didn't have time to stop and take it off.

She was certainly starting to feel a stronger emotional attachment to Cas then she had ever felt previously, and it seemed as if the feeling was mutual. There was just two things Dean couldn't reconcile: that she felt this way about another guy, and that she was actually falling for an angel. A winged monkey with a questionable moral compass who was millions of years old and from an entirely different plane of existence; there had to be some law of reality that would break if a human hooked up with _that_.

Not to mention that Dean wasn't gay. At least she didn't think she was gay, she certainly hadn't been faking her enjoyment in women for the last thirty years. So why did she want Cas so bad? She couldn't decide if she was shocked by her feelings or if she somehow knew she was attracted to Cas on a subconscious level all along. It wasn't something she had ever really contemplated before and it made her just a little uncomfortable. Suddenly being uncertain of ones sexuality when it had never before been questioned was no small thing, and not unsettling to the hunter.

Plus, there was a good chance that God would smite her for getting it on with one of his entourage. The cosmos was most definitely not ready for a relationship like this, not from Dean's perspective anyway. She was fighting the urge not to care though; because she waned Cas so bad against all of her better judgement. She wanted to just take her and whisk her away to some alternate universe where they could be together without any literal earth-shattering repercussions. Of course that was never going to happen and things could never be that easy, but it was a nice sentiment when you didn't think too hard about it.

After all that was considered though, it left Dean at an impasse because while she wanted Cas she couldn't allow herself to take her. So she ran, out of the hotel room, away from temptation, and back to the familiar growl of the Impala and sound of tires pressing over concrete. Baby was the one girl Dean could ride who always had no strings attached.

After a few minutes of cruising without a destination, Dean pulled into the parking lot of a diner. It seemed as good a place as any to muse over the hot mess that was her and Cas' relationship. She got out of the car, locked it and tucked the keys inside her pocket. When she walked through the diner door the bell jingled. It smelled of coffee, toast and the unmistakable perfume of a lit grill. The menu was listed on a board above the counter; people sat either there, at tables, or in the few booths that were next to the windows.

This would have been all well and good, and perfectly normal, if two of the people sitting in one of the booths weren't one Sam Winchester and one Archangel Gabriel: and Dean hadn't spotted them as soon as she looked away from the menu board.

The older Winchester immediately bristled at the sight. Any time Gabriel was present there was something fishy going down. The fact that Cas had lied to her about Sam being with Bobby was even more suspicious (where even was Bobby, anyway?) and the fact that Sam didn't seem too fazed by being with Gabriel only drove Dean to be on a redder alert than ever. With purpose, Dean strode over to the hunter and angel and stopped in front of the table. She placed her hands on it's edge and leaned forward between their faces before they could process what was happening.

"Sorry guys, am I interrupting something?" She asked facetiously, casting both of them a distrusting look but eyeing Sam in particular.

Gabriel smiled. "Dean! Mi amigo! So happy you could join us," he greeted Dean warmly - perhaps just a little too warmly.

Sam started and moved back slightly. "Dean, I wasn't expecting you-"

"I'm sure you weren't," Dean cut in, smiling cynically and motioning for Sam to move down so she could take a seat.

Sam glanced at Gabriel with a flustered expression and slid over, letting Dean take her previous spot opposite the Trickster. The atmosphere suddenly became palpable with awkwardness, but Dean seemed to be oblivious as she was too intent on her mission to find out exactly what had been occurring before she arrived.

"So how did you come across us?" asked Gabriel nonchalantly, taking a sip from the ginger beer that had been delivered to the table before Dean had arrived.

"Just came to pick up some grub," Dean lied; nicking a sip of Sam's lemonade out of the straw that was in the glass.

Sam snatched the glass back and frowned. "Hey, get your own!"

"Sorry." Dean smirked, in actual fact not feeling very sorry about it at all. She turned back to Gabriel and her expression finally hardened. "So what's the deal, why are you two her chumming it up?"

"Sam and I aren't allowed to do lunch?" Gabriel inquired innocently, while simultaneously smirking in an unabashedly knowing way.

Dean smiled patronisingly at Gabriel. "No, you're not. Now why are you having a secret mothers club meeting without me?"

Sam turned around in the booth to face her sister. "Look Dean, It's not what you think."

"Then what is it?"

The younger Winchester shot a glance at Gabriel who just smiled at her. "Go ahead, tell him," he teased, anticipating Dean's reaction.

Sam swallowed and turned back to Dean. "We're- we're on a date."

"A date," Dean repeated back to Sam disbelievingly. "You know I might have believed you if I had of found you with Bobby like Cas told me you were, but there is no way in heaven that you're on a date with king of crap."

Gabriel grinned. "Hey, I'm a king! Not bad."

Dean whipped her head around and glared at him. "Shut up."

"Come on Dean, is it really that hard to believe? You went on a date with Cas a few days ago and I didn't make a fuss." Sam waited for dean's response pointedly.

"Yeah, and the only reason we went on it was to appease this asshole." Dean gestured to Gabriel. "So he would put us back in our normal bodies. Plus, that was Cas, she's our best friend. You're with Gabriel and he's not exactly on our list of confidants."

"I should be," Gabriel cut in, "I saved your Asses during the apocalypse."

Dean sighed. "Would you shut up, please!"

The conversation was cut off by the arrival of Gabriel's pancakes and Sam's BLT. Dean leaned back to allow the waiter to hand Sam her food and glared at Gabriel as he stated to dig in to his pancakes.

Once the waiter had retreated back to the kitchen, Sam picked up the conversation once again. "I know it's weird, and it's not like this means anything. Just calm down."

"There's got to be a reason though," Dean insisted, "You wouldn't just agree to this because Gabriel asked you nicely."

A blush rose to Sam's cheeks and she looked down at her plate. "Actually, I did."

"Politeness goes along way, Dean," Gabriel quipped, "You should take note."

"I swear if you open your mouth again I am going to jam that fork so far up your ass you'll be tasting metal for a year," Dean snapped.

"Confident words for a petty little human," Gabriel remarked, a dangerous glint in his eye. It probably wasn't a coincidence that he chose this moment to pick up his knife – and quite conspicuously too.

Dean watched on sombrely as Gabriel began eating his pancakes. It was obvious that this was an argument she wasn't going to with, no matter how much she tried. Gabriel would keep playing the archangel card, and Sam would play the Cas card, and that was that.

Taking a moment to decide where she would go from here, Dean paused and then opened her mouth to speak again. "I do have a question for you, Gabriel."

Gabriel flicked his eyes up at Dean as he was cutting a piece of pancake off. "Shoot."

"What do you think God would think about one of his angels getting with a human? Is that even permitted?" The answer was wanted more to benefit Dean than to put Gabriel and Sam on the spot, but it would achieve both.

"I actually don't think he'd care," Gabriel answered honestly, "It was always Michael and Lucifer that were uptight about it, not Dad. He never showed an opion that went one way or the other on the subject but they sure did – it's what got Luci kicked down from the clouds."

Dean nodded. "I see. Well it looks like I can't sway you guys, so I'm going to leave you alone." She went to stand, but Sam shot out a hand and grabbed her jacket before she could move away.

"You don't have to leave, have lunch with us," Sam implored, gripping Dean's jacket tight and showing no sign that she was going to let go.

"No, I have something I need to do," Dean said, pulling her jacket out of Sam's grip.

Sam didn't argue any further and watched as Dean retreated from the table and out of the diner. She turned back to Gabriel and shot him a glare before picking up half of her BLT. "Great, now Dean is going to be really weird with me. You better be worth it."

Gabriel chuckled and swallowed the piece of pancake that had been in his mouth. "Oh, I will be."

* * *

The hotel room door slammed open and Dean stormed in, sweat dripping down her face and a determined look plastered over her features. She ripped her jacket off and threw it carelessly on the floor. She strode over to the bed where luckily, Cas was still laying, with her eyes closed, and crawled over the top of her – pinning her wrists down as she did so.

Cas's eyes popped open and looked up at Dean quizzically. "Dean, where did you –"

"It doesn't matter," Dean answered before the question was finished, and then dipped her head down to capture Cas' lips in a fervent kiss. Her encounter with Sam and Gabriel had sealed the deal – if Sam was going to mess around with an angel, then so was she.

Cas had been lying there, waiting for Dean to come back and to demand an explanation. She was happy the hunter had returned but she wasn't going to be seduced so easily. She pulled her head back from the kiss – which was hard to do since it was against the bed, and narrowed her eyes at Dean. "Why did you leave?"

Dean gulped in a breath of air to recover from the kiss before she spoke. "I had to think some things through, I'm sorry. It doesn't matter though, because now there's nothing stopping us. I want you, Cas. I need you. I-I love you."

A blush rose to Cas's cheeks and she turned her head to the side, away from Dean. The hunter took this opportunity to kiss Cas on the neck. It was involuntary when the angel let out a soft mewl in response. "Dean…"

"Just go with it," Dean said, working her way down the nape of Cas' neck to her collarbone.

Before the hunter knew what was happening, the tables had literally been turned and she was flat on her back, with Cas looking down at her from above. The swiftness of the change n position just served to remind Dean exactly how powerful Cas was. Dean was like a ragdoll to her.

"Don't forget what you're messing with," Cas warned, looking directly into Dean's eyes.

"I haven't," Dean replied, licking her full pink lips.

Then angel hesitated for only a moment before diving in for Dean's lips with the same ferocity she had given on that night when she had kissed Meg on impulse. If that kiss had been pleasant, this one was sending Castiel to another planet. One full of delights she would never have been able to fathom before she experienced them for herself.

Dean's freckles seemed to sparkle thanks to the perspiration on her face. In fact the heat permeating the room made both angel and hunter sticky and clammy but neither cared. Cas snaked a hand up Dean's shirt and caressed the smooth skin of her stomach. The hunter groaned at the touch and tightened the grip she had on the back of Cas' shirt. Unconsciously Cas moved her leg and wedged it between Dean's, pressing against her softly. The hunter gasped at the new pressure and then groaned again.

There was several minutes of kissing and pressing bodies against each other before Cas finally pulled away to let both of them regain some oxygen. "We should probably wait until we get back to the bunker, you know," Cas said, letting her head drop in the crevice of Dean's neck. "Bobby or Sam could walk in at any moment."

"Yeah," Dean mumbled, closing her eyes and relishing the feeling of Cas lying on top of her. "I don't care."

Cas chuckled and closed her own eyes. "Right."

* * *

Sam stared across the table at Gabriel who was close to finishing his meal. "So we're your pancakes nice?"

"Splendid," Gabriel replied, polishing off the last of his dish.

The BLT had long since been devoured – Sam hadn't been lying when she said she was starving. The food seemed to be the most positive thing about this date thanks to Dean's unexpected appearance. And to think Sam had been on the verge of having a decent time just before her sister had arrived…

Gabriel noticed Sam's lack of enthusiasm and put down his knife and fork. "You're not having fun?"

"It's just Dean," Sam replied, fiddling with the salt shaker. "I really wasn't expecting her to show up."

"Neither was I," said Gabriel, "But who cares? So Dean showed up and tried to stir the pot. She didn't, we're still here."

Sam eyed Gabriel levelly. "True. Still, I feel like we've just made things unnecessarily complicated."

"Nothing is any more complicated than it always is around you two." Gabriel wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood up. "I'll take you home, I think the mood has been damaged beyond repair."

"Sorry," Sam mumbled, standing and following Gabriel out of the diner.

"Don't be, you did nothing wrong." Gabriel stopped at the entrance to the diner and turned around to face Sam. He touched her on the shoulder and before Sam knew what was happening they were standing out the front of the hotel room. It took her a few moments to regain her bearings. Gabriel smiled at her. "One last thing – no date would be complete without a kiss."

"Really," Sam said indignantly. "Fine." Gabriel just grinned as Sam leaned down and pressed her lips against his. There was noticeable electricity that shot through both of them when their skin made contact and Sam had to pull herself away to stop things from getting too passionate.

When she did, it suddenly occurred to her that Gabriel was lower than he had been before. How could that be? She looked down at herself and saw her hands were bigger and her chest was flat; she felt her head – her hair was shoulder length again!

Sam was male once again.

"I'm a guy!" Sam exclaimed, patting himself in disbelief.

"I said I would turn you guys back if you went on a date with me," Gabriel responded.

Sam grinned and ran over to the door of the hotel room. He unlocked it and quickly went inside to find Dean and Cas asleep on one of the hotel beds together. Bypassing the shock he should have felt at seeing this, Sam was too excited to care because Dean was male again as well! Gabriel had finally made good on his word! Sam was almost ready to rejoice until he realised something was still off. Cas still looked very petite, especially when he was lying next to Dean like that. Then it hit him: Cas was still female.

"But I never said I'd turn Cas back," Gabriel added from behind Sam, causing the hunter to swivel around and demand an explanation – only for his eyes to be met with empty space.


	15. Something's Missing

Dean startled awake, jerking his body in shock, which caused Cas to also wake and snap upright in bed before he could rise. There was a minute of silence as Dean gaped at Sam who, upon realising Gabriel had fobbed off, turned back to face the duo on the bed and gaped straight back.

It didn’t register with Dean until he turned to address Cas, but when his eyes met the figure of the angel he felt like he had to do a double take just to make sure what he was seeing was real. “You’re still female – and Sam and I are back in our original bodies!”

Cas looked down at herself and sighed. “Why am I not surprised.”

“He told me he’d turn us back if I went on a date with him,” Sam commented from the other side of the room, only now absorbing the situation with Dean and Cas in bed together – but deciding now was not the time to remark on it.

Dean whipped his head around to Sam’s direction. “So that’s why you were out with him!”

Sam pursed his lips together and walked over to the bar fridge without responding. That wasn’t the only reason he was out with Gabriel, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to clue Dean into that.

“So why didn’t he turn me back as well?” Cas demanded, sliding her legs off the side of the bed and standing. She bent over to pick up her trench coat from the crumpled sheets under Dean but didn’t put it on.

The younger Winchester looked over warily as he pulled out a cold beer from the fridge. “He just said he never agreed to turn you back as well, then he vanished before I could rip him a new orifice.”

“Why do I feel like you wouldn’t have ripped him a new anything,” Dean remarked, his comment positively loaded with cynical rhetoric.

“Why can’t you just back off?” Sam snapped. It didn’t matter how good his intentions may have been, Dean could be a real asshole sometimes.

Dean followed Cas’ lead and stood from the bed, walking over to Sam. “I’m just trying to look out for you Sam, and angels – the exception being Cas – are _always_ bad news. Gabriel has been fucking with us from day one, and now suddenly you’re all gung-ho about trusting him? Come on, man.”

“I’m not gung-ho about trusting him. I don’t know what I think,” Sam paused, “But it’s not about me, it’s about getting us out of this rut. I was doing what I thought was best – you and Cas made your attempts, so I made mine. Is that such a crime?”

Dean looked at Sam like he had just dropped the bomb to end all bombs. “YES! YES IT IS! Gabriel is literally the number one prankster of the universe, it doesn’t matter what he says: he’s going to doublecross you!”

Enough was enough. Sam walked over to Deans jacket and retrieved the keys to the Impala. “I’m going for a drive.” He turned and exited the hotel room, leaving his hardly touched beer on the counter as he walked out the door. Call him crazy, but Sam believed there was good in Gabriel. He had helped them – whether Dean wanted to admit it or not – and he had never been as malicious as Lucifer or Zachariah or Naomi. That wasn’t to say Sam was excusing him for his behaviour, but Gabriel wasn’t the scum of the universe as Dean was suggesting. For some reason unbeknownst to Sam, he felt very protective of the angel and Dean’s words hurt; maybe because they were true, or maybe because Sam was in denial.

It was a struggle for Dean to keep himself from screeching at Sam to give the car keys back and chasing him around the parking lot until he did so. He was still getting used to co-ownership.

“So, what now?”

Dean turned around and looked at Cas. For what it was worth, he kind of preferred Cas this way. Eyes wider and more innocent than ever, frame petite and compact. It somehow just made more sense. Or maybe it just made Dean feel better about the homosexuality thing – yeah, that was probably it.

“I don’t know,” Dean admitted, rubbing his eyes with the balls of his wrists.

Cas moved forward and hesitantly brought a hand up to brush away the rogue bits of Dean’s fringe which were now limp thanks to his sweat diluting the gel he had put in it that morning. Dean looked into Cas eyes without speaking as she stretched her arm to his forehead. “Maybe we should go somewhere cooler,” Cas suggested, noting the discomfort she and undoubtedly Dean were feeling from the heat.

Dean put his hands on Cas’ hips and nodded. “Zap us somewhere I can block out the stress Sam is giving me.”

Cas nodded back quickly and in a moment they were gone.

* * *

 

Sam sat listlessly in the Impala. If Dean had of bothered to look out the door before zipping off with Cas, he would have known that Sam had never actually left the parking lot. Instead the younger Winchester had simply plopped himself in the car-turned-oven and began moping in the normal fashion.

It was hard to say what Sam was feeling at the moment – besides the obvious frustration, hurt and resentment – but it was safe to say it was nothing good. Gabriel was messing with his head in more ways than one, and he didn’t appreciate it one bit. While he harboured annoyance towards him just as much as Dean did, he also felt this strange compulsion to be around him. It was like he craved the pain that Gabriel was inflicting – how sick is that?

“Please, spare me,” Sam groaned to no one in particular

Gabriel laid back against the passenger seat and closed his eyes. “Nah.”

The hunter jumped in his seat and grabbed his chest in shock. “WHAT IS IT WITH YOU BASTARDS APPEARING WITH NO WARNING?”

“It’s more mysterious that way,” Gabriel quipped.

Sam frowned and rolled up the sleeves of his t-shirt, revealing his toned biceps. “I don’t even know why you’re here. It’s not like you could possibly be stupid enough to think I’m happy with you.”

Gabriel shrugged. “No, but I thought you might want to bargain again.”

“Nope, over it.”

Gabriel deflated slightly. He really didn’t think he’d see the day when one of the Winchester’s refused outright to make a deal.

Sam saw the look on Gabriel’s face and rolled his eyes. “I don’t understand what all of this is about. If you would just tell me and not make our lives a living hell, you probably could have gotten what you wanted by now.”

“Really?” Gabriel snapped, turning to Sam indignantly. “I don’t think that’s true. I think if I told you what I want you’d laugh in my face and call me pathetic.”

“Try me,” Sam cajoled combatively.

Before Sam could process what was happening Gabriel was on top of him slamming their mouths together and clawing at him desperately. It was almost wild how the angel threw himself at the hunter. If this didn’t get the point across, nothing else would.

“You’re an asshole,” Sam gasped, pushing Gabriel off of him. “I’m _never_ going to be attracted to you, so would you just stop?”

Gabriel pouted and slid back into the passengers seat. “I thought as much,” he mumbled. “Would it help if I did this?” A click of his fingers and suddenly a pretty blonde woman was sitting in the passenger seat batting her eyes at Sam.

Sam swallowed. “No, it wouldn’t. Please just go away I have crap I need to sort out in my head. Wait a minute…” Sam turned to Gabriel, “Where the hell is Bobby?”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “I don’t know!” he couldn’t fathom what Bobby Singer had to do with their current conversation.

“What have you done with him?” Demanded Sam.

“Nothing, I swear!” Gabriel put his hands up.

Sam pulled out the handbrake and switched on the ignition. “We’re going to find him.”

* * *

 

Meanwhile, Dean and Cas sat in a bar while the hunter knocked back a shot of whiskey. “Have you seen Bobby today since the hunt?” Dean asked Cas, pushing the shot glass away from himself.

“No,” Cas replied, realising what Dean was thinking. “Do you think something has happened to him?”

“Well he generally doesn’t just disappear off the face of the earth. Damnit, I wish I had Baby; we can’t search without her. I’m going to try and ring Sam.” Dean pulled out his mobile phone and started searching for Sam’s number. “It feels so good to be back in my old body,” he remarked casually as he put the phone to his ear.

Cas just scowled at him in return.

Dean waited and listened to the phone ring until Sam’s voicemail message began to play. He pulled the phone away and hung up exasperatedly. “He didn’t answer. This really isn’t the time for this crap. I have this really bad feeling that something’s happened to Bobby.”

The angel stared at Dean silently, unsure what to say.

Dean tucked his phone back into his pocket. “Call it hunters intuition, but something isn’t right.”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas to everybody who celebrates it and Happy Holidays to those who don’t!
> 
> Amber***


	16. Car Trouble

" _We're_ not going anywhere," Gabriel announced, clicking her fingers. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion when she remained in the Impala. She looked down at her hand and clicked again, only for nothing to happen. "What the…"

"You don't think I'm that stupid, do you?" Sam kept his eyes on the road, stopping at a set of traffic lights. "I've been searching up sigils and I finally found one that temporarily binds angels to one place. It's not as strong or effective as holy fire, but it's enough to make sure you stay put in this car for a few hours."

Gabriel looked around the car but couldn't see any sigils. Then finally she lifted her eyes to the roof to be met with a large circular symbol ringed by enochian words spray-painted above her. "Awesome." She flicked her long tresses over her shoulder and pulled down the sunblock to look in the mirror on the inside of it. "You know, I think I look pretty fine like this. Then again, I'm just fine all round, so it's not surprising." The angel clicked her fingers and suddenly Gabriel was back to normal. "So I guess I have no choice but to help you find the old man then?"

Sam turned a corner roughly, causing Gabriel to jerk to the side. "Nope." He paid no attention to the yelp the angel made as this happened. "We're going back to that vampire's house, that was the last place I saw him before Cas zapped me over to you."

The angel sat himself back upright and smiled. "Such a good little sister," he remarked in response to the mention of Cas. "If only I could have said the same for you."

"Screw you."

Gabriel smirked. "Again, if only."

Sam glanced to the side at Gabriel as he drove. "I wish you would just admit that I'm not worth the hassle and get lost."

Gabriel chuckled. "Oh but Sam, you've _never_ been _worth_ the hassle. This part right here," Gabriel gestured to himself and then Sam, "it's never been for fun. Maybe the gender-swap thing was, but not this. I always expected you to be some work."

They were approaching the vampire's home. "You are the biggest pain in my ass, you know that?" Sam pulled the car over in front of the old weatherboard house. "I'm going in to search for Bobby, I'll be back."

"What? I have to stay in the car?" Gabriel shouted incredulously.

Sam opened the drivers-side door. "You better believe it." He got out and slammed the door shut before he had to listen to Gabriel's protests.

Gabriel sighed as he watched Sam walk up to the front door and disappear into the house. He sat back in his chair and looked up at the sigil again. "If you can hear me, Dad, I just want to tell you creating angel-proofing was a low blow!" He let his head drop back down to its normal position and glanced around at the rest of the interior of the Impala. "I think this thing could use some new decorating…"

* * *

Dean growled and slammed the phone down on the table. "That's the thirtieth time! I refuse to believe he can't hear his phone, he's just ignoring me."

He looked over at Cas who was reading the specials menu. "Why is there a specific soup for this particular day?"

The hunter shot Cas a confused expression. "What?"

"The menu, it says 'Soup of the Day: homemade spiced pumpkin'," Cas tore her eyes away from the menu to look at Dean. "I didn't know this particular day had a specific soup attached to it. Do they serve this soup at all food establishments on this day?"

Dean dropped his head into his hand. "I am too old for this crap," he muttered, while Cas looked on in a concerned manner.

"If Sam isn't answering maybe we should go to him," Cas suggested, forgetting her questions about the Soup of the Day.

The older Winchester took his hand off his forehead and picked up his last shot. "That's a great idea, Cas. I'll just use my mental GPS to locate him, shall I?" He threw his head back and drank his whiskey.

Cas rolled her eyes. "I realise we don't know where he is. What I meant was that we could use the power of deduction to figure out where he might be. He couldn't possibly have gone far."

The sound of wine glasses clinking together as the bartender put them in the sink temporarily distracted Dean from his train of thought. When he realised he was staring into space he shook his head and turned back to Cas. "That sounds like a good idea. I say we check that vampire's house, maybe he's already looking for Bobby."

"It's very probable," Cas agreed.

Dean pulled out a twenty and laid it on the table. "Okay Cas, let's go." He grabbed her hand and the bar disappeared. They were now standing in the lounge room of the deceased vampire's house, with Sam staring directly at them. "There you are!" cried Dean. "Would it have killed you to answer your phone?"

Disregarding the shock of having Cas and Dean appear out of nowhere right in front of him, Sam frowned at Dean's comment. "My phone? Wha-" He pulled his phone out of his pocket and took a look at it. "Holy crap, I had no idea it was even ringing. Sorry Dean." He put it back away and turned back to his brother. "How'd you know I was here anyway?"

"Deduction," Castiel replied absently, looking around the room in curiosity.

"Well now that you're here you can help me search for Bobby. I haven't seen him in hours," Sam said.

"Neither have we," Dean looked around the room. "In fact I haven't seen him since we went back to the motel. He said he was going on a beer run and he never came back." The older Winchester shot Sam a disapproving look. "I bet Gabriel is behind this."

Sam rolled his eyes and pinched his nose. "Actually, I have Gabriel in the car outside. He might have done this but he told me he has no idea where Bobby is; I don't know if I believe him."

Dean looked positively horrified. "You left him with BABY?!" He pressed his hands against the sides of his head and then bent forward and put a hand to his palpitating heart. "You left Gabriel with the Impala… I'm not even going to _ask_ why he's with you in the first place, but I can only imagine how much he's already violated the poor girl."

"I'm sure the Impala's fine, Dean," Sam assured him in an exasperated way.

"How do you know he's still there, he could have gone to the other side of the globe for all you know," Castiel interjected through the car drama.

The younger Winchester gave an expression that showed him to be quite pleased with himself. "I found a sigil that binds angels temporarily to one place. Not as strong as a ring of holy fire, but so far it's gotten the job done."

Castiel squinted at Sam suspiciously. "I've never heard of a sigil that can do that."

Dean stood back up straight again, apparently finished his panic attack. "When did you even get time to draw it in the Impala?" he asked.

"Last night," Sam answered, "I couldn't sleep and I had a feeling we'd need to use it."

The older Winchester didn't seem too impressed, but he didn't comment on it further. "We have to figure out where Bobby went," he said, "that's the biggest problem we currently have. The Joker can wait."

Sam nodded. "I've already searched the house, he's not here."

"Well what do we do now then?" Dean pursed his lips together angrily. "Angels are infuriating!"

"Hey!" Castiel eyed Dean disapprovingly.

Dean shot Cas a glance. "Sorry."

Sam shrugged. "I suppose we go back to the car and question Gabriel."

Dean pushed past Sam towards the door. "If he's damaged baby I swear to god…"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Cas remarked.

Dean didn't respond. He continued out the door to the Impala. Sam and Cas followed behind, shooting each other sympathetic looks.

They emerged from the house and walked over to the Impala. Dean's stomach was almost doing flips from the anxiety. From the outside the Impala looked normal – shiny, black and kickass. Dean could only hope that the inside still matched it. He opened the door and stuck his head him: the sight that met his eyes was nothing short of stupefying. The inner walls were a neon-green leopard print and the seats were hot pink leather. A disco ball hung from the ceiling and rotated mechanically in a slow spin. The flooring had been turned into shag carpeting and the dashboard was now covered in fine blue velvet. All of this was nothing however, when compared to the undeniable centrepiece of the scene: the set of purple fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror.

Gabriel sat in his seat, sipping a martini and smoking a cigar while wearing a pair of large brown sunglasses. "Oh, hi Dean! Care to join me?"

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Dean bellowed, feeling like he was on the verge of having a heart attack.

"Oh, I just did some redecorating. Don't you just love it?" Gabriel glanced around at his handiwork then refocused back on Dean's face with the biggest shit-eating grin the hunter had ever seen.

Sam and Cas poked their heads in on either side of Dean's. Sam's jaw dropped and he couldn't help but let out a laugh at the ridiculous sight. "Oh my god…"

"I have to say, you've really outdone yourself this time Gabriel," said Castiel.

Dean had to physically restrain himself from throttling the archangel. "I only have one question: _why_."

"Besides the old 'cause I can' routine?" Gabriel lowered his glass. "I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact your brother trapped me in here like a caged monkey."

"A caged monkey would have done less damage," Dean spat. "Put the car back to the way it was before I neuter you."

With a sigh Gabriel snapped his fingers, his martini and sunglasses disappeared and the Impala went back to its normal appearance. "You are no fun."

Now that his pride and joy was back to her original form, and before any more time was wasted, Dean decided to cut to the chase: "Now tell us where Bobby is."

Gabriel's expression deadpanned. "Are you serious? Do any of you ever listen to anything I say? I already told your brother I don't know where he is!"

Dean persisted. "A likely story," he said, sliding into the drivers seat. "I don't care if you won't tell us the truth right now. Either way you're not getting out of here for a while."

"Oh joy of joys," Gabriel muttered.

"I don't think he's lying, Dean," Sam said, walking around to the drivers side door which was still open.

"Well I don't think he's telling the truth," Dean countered.

Gabriel rolled his head back and closed his eyes. "You know, you guys have so many enemies I can't help but wonder why I'm your only prime suspect. I mean really."

"As much as I hate to say it, he has a point," said Sam.

"Oh great, so now we another thing to deal with besides this asshole?" Dean almost shouted.

"I'm right here," said Gabriel incredulously.

It seemed as if they were going to get nowhere at this rate. Dean stared at the steering wheel hopelessly, Sam and Cas stood outside the Car throwing each other helpless looks and Gabriel sat in his seat rolling his eyes in boredom. Before anymore could be said, a fifth voice cut through the conversation and caused all heads to turn:

"Hello, boys."

It was all Dean could do to not bash his head against the steering wheel at this point. "Oh, _hell no_."

"Well that's quite an apt greeting, isn't it?" Crowley mused, looking from one face, to another, to another, until he landed on Gabriel. "Ah and you must be the archangel Gabriel. I've heard so much about you, it's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

"And you must be Crowley," Gabriel answered. "I have to say, from what I'd heard about you I thought you'd be taller."

"They all say that." Crowley smiled.

"Crowley, why are you here?" Sam gave the demon a pointed look. There was only one thing worse than a mischievous archangel – and that was the King of Hell. The fact that he and Dean now had both of them in the same space just spelled out trouble in gigantic flashing neon block letters.

"Moi?" Crowley pointed to himself. "I'm just dropping something off for you."

Sam and Dean spoke at the same time: "What?"

Crowley snapped his fingers and suddenly Bobby was standing next to him. "A little warning that you were going to disappear would have been nice," Bobby snapped. It was with a start that he realised where he was and who he was with. "Oh, hi guys."

"Excuse my French, but what the _fuck_ is going on here?" Dean demanded, getting more confused by the second.

Crowley stepped forward and screwed up his face in mock-contemplation. "Well, in simple, I heard about Gabriel's little prank on you and I just had to get all the juicy details – for completely noble purposes, of course, so I decided to take Bobby here out on a little lunch date to catch up."

Bobby rolled his eyes. "He didn't get much out of me, I can tell you that."

"No, but I got enough," Crowley assured, smiling wickedly at the two Winchester's. "I bet you made such pretty girls."

"They did," Gabriel affirmed from the passenger seat.

Dean grit his teeth together. "My head is going to explode."

The King of Hell put his hands in his coat pockets. "Well, I think I'll take my leave now. See you girls soon." He made to disappear but he remained in the same position. Looking around he couldn't see any devils traps. "What's going on here?"

Gabriel waved his index finger. "Uh, uh, uh. You're not going anywhere until you apologise to these kids for kidnapping their father-figure."

Crowley raised his eyebrows. "Oh come on."

But Gabriel was having none of it. "Apologise."

The demon sighed. "Fine, I'm sorry. Now let me go."

Gabriel smiled. "Good demon," and suddenly Crowley was gone.

Dean began to massage his temples. "Sam, get this asshole out of my car before I commit angel-cide."

Without questioning his brother, Sam reached into the car and scraped his knife against the roof of the car – breaking the sigil.

Gabriel yipped: "Finally!" He zapped himself out of the car next to Cas. "I thought I'd never get out of there."

"I'm so confused," Bobby mumbled, trying to figure out why Gabriel was even there.

"Bobby, Sam, Cas, - get in the car. We're going back to the motel," Dean announced, turning on the ignition. He was so ready to go to sleep and never wake up again.

The two men and angel all slid into the Impala. Gabriel watched as the car took off into the distance. "Goodbye Gabriel," he yelled petulantly. "Humans."

 


	17. Love and Other Blasphemies

Dean slammed the door of the motel room open and marched over to the fridge to pull out one of the beers he had previously put in there to chill. Sam, Bobby and Cas all filed in behind him in arguably less of a huff.

"If I ever see Gabriel again I am going to rip his face off," Dean shouted angrily, throwing himself down on one of the beds.

Sam sighed and sat down on the other bed. "Calm down, Dean. You probably won't see him again anyway."

Unfortunately for Sam, Dean didn't want to hear it. He ignored his comment completely and turned to Bobby instead. "And you! You were with Crowley? That's just what we need, to give that asshole more ammunition against us!"

"Hey, I didn't exactly choose to be his lunch date," Bobby shouted back. "I blinked and suddenly I was sitting with him in a cocktail bar in Hawaii! I couldn't just hitch a ride back here."

Dean threw his hands up in the air. "I just can't believe we were ever in this situation to begin with. I did _not_ sign up for _this_ when I became a hunter. The contract said I had to kill monsters, not get fucked around by angels and demons!"

Bobby scowled and walked up to Dean, puffing his chest out in dominance. "You're acting like a child! You're perfectly fine and you have the gall to stand here and whine about how you have it so hard? You think it's been a walk in the park for the rest of us?" He turned to Cas. "Look at her, she's the one who should be complaining, yet you don't see Cas stomping her feet and yelling about how Gabriel freaky-fridayed her."

There was a silence as Dean internalised what Bobby was telling him. Sam looked between their hardened faces and swallowed before making the next comment. "Bobby's right, Dean. We are back to normal and there's no use holding a grudge against Gabriel's because he's not worth it. We should focus on getting Cas back to normal."

Dean glanced at Sam and then fixed his eyes back on Bobby. He clenched his jaw and dug his fingers into his thighs. "Fine."

The oldest hunter relaxed his muscles and fixed his worn cap. "I think I'm going to head home. I'm getting too old for this crap."

Dean smiled sadly and looked down at his lap. "Aren't we all?"

Bobby gave him a look but didn't respond. The old hunter picked his duffle bag up off the bench and walked over to the door. "I'll see you boys later, you know where I'll be if you need me."

Sam and Dean bid him goodbye in unison. "See you, Bobby"

The old hunter made his exit leaving the two brothers alone. Sam stood up, walked over to where the kettle provided by the hotel sat on the bench, and began to boil some water. "So what do we do now?" he asked, preparing himself a coffee.

"I suppose we could go back to the bunker," Dean suggested, letting himself fall back on the bed. "I don't think I could go out on another hunt straight away. I need to let my head sort itself out."

For the first time since they had entered the hotel room Castiel spoke. "You do realise, I personally don't care about being female."

* * *

 

When they got to the bunker it was a quiet affair. The brothers hardly spoke to each other, preferring to separate and do their own thing. Sam dragged himself to his bedroom and collapsed on the bed, exhausted and exasperated with the entire last twenty-four hours. Dean stationed himself in the library and pulled out a book on shapeshifters; he tried to read but his mind was on something else.

When Cas had informed them that she was indifferent to staying female, Sam and Dean hadn't really known what to say. It was true that in the very beginning Cas had explained angels didn't really perceive gender, but both he and Sam had assumed because Cas was just as determined to get them back to their original forms, she had cared anyway.

According to Cas, this was not the case:

" _I was only interested in getting both of you back to normal. What my vessel looks like is not really of concern to me; as long as it's not falling apart it doesn't matter," Cas informed them from the corner of the hotel room, where she had hidden herself away while Dean and Bobby had their screaming match._

_Sam looked up from the coffee he was making. "Are you sure? It's not exactly a small change; you'll be treated a lot differently in that body."_

_Cas nodded in conviction. "I'm sure I'll be able to handle it."_

_The older Winchester jumped off the bed and marched up to Cas, pointing a finger at her. "You can't be serious. You're really okay with your vessel being modified without your consent? You should be ready to shove an angel blade down Gabriel's throat just on principal alone."_

_The angel frowned and answered stiffly. "It's a waste of time, Dean. We have better things to do. I'm not dying, my vessel is perfectly functional, and it's not as if I'm going to be using it for anything besides housing my true form. So why should I care if it's now female?"_

_The hunter couldn't answer the question. Castiel had caught him in a stalemate: she was right, there was no reason to warrant worrying about the gender of her vessel. Dean and Sam had their reasons for wanting to be male, for Cas no such reasons existed. He closed his mouth and went back to the bed, letting himself fall face-first onto it. "Wake me up in an hour," he told the other two before closing his eyes and blocking out the rest of the conversation._

Thinking about it only unsettled Dean even more, because Cas staying female didn't pose any immediate problems for the angel herself, but it did pose one for him. You see if Cas was female there was now nothing stopping Dean from falling for her completely.

There had always been that barrier before: Cas was a man, and Dean was fairly certain he didn't go for that. He still liked Cas' personality and valued her as a friend, but that simple fact had always prevented him from thinking about the relationship in any other way. Since she had been turned female that had all changed, and now that he himself was back to normal the conflict Dean had previously been facing about possibly being homosexual could easily be ignored. If Cas wasn't in a male body, and she insisted that she didn't identify specifically with any human gender, then he wasn't really homosexual at all.

So what was there to make him feel strange about wanting Cas romantically? Absolutely Nothing. That's what.

He gripped the pages of the shapeshifter book a little tighter and pressed his lips together. Why couldn't Cas see what she was doing to him? It was so unfair.

The sound of feet softly patting the floor made him lift his head. He saw Cas standing in the library doorway, wearing a pair of boxer shorts and an oversized grey t-shirt. She held a mug in her hands and stared at him apprehensively. Dean swallowed and tried not to rip out the pages of the book he was holding entirely.

Slowly Cas walked into the room and towards him, until she was standing over him and the desk he had the book laid out on. She stretched out her arms and held out the mug to him. "I made you a hot chocolate; I thought you might like one. I apologise if it doesn't taste right."

Dean took the mug from her hands and placed it gently on the table so it did not spill. "Thanks." He stayed quiet, not knowing what to say.

The angel looked at him silently for a moment and then nodded. "I think I'll go to bed now."

He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "You don't sleep."

Cas looked down at the hot chocolate and shrugged. "I know."

There was another moment of silence and then Dean couldn't take it any more. He blamed Castiel, and he blamed Gabriel, but mostly he blamed himself for these feelings surfacing. He tried to ignore it but the temptation was becoming way too strong, and as cliché as it was to even think: he was only human. With the tension too much for him to bear, he slid his chair back and stood up. Now that he was male again, he was slightly taller than Cas. He looked down at her, and she up at him.

"Dean?"

He reached up and placed his hands on either side of her head, gently cupping her cheeks. He slowly slid his hands up, weaving his fingers into her wavy locks. He wanted her to feel it, to feel what he felt. He wasn't even sure if she was capable of doing so, but he was putting his best into it anyway. Bending down to meet her, he brought their lips together in a soft, tender kiss that conveyed all his passion. A warm feeling built up in his chest and he knew what was happening. By this point it was as clear as day. It was the same feeling he got when he was with Lisa, and even when he was with Jo for a briefer time. As much as he wanted to, he could not deny it.

He was in love, with an angel.

Dean pulled himself away, keeping his hands on Cas' and their faces close together. He looked into her azure eyes hoping she understood. He let go of her and brushed a piece of hair off her face with his thumb.

"I can't get over how good you look as a chick," he murmured, examining her face with a smirk.

Cas chuckled. "I guess I'm just blessed."

The hunter burst out laughing and patted Cas on the shoulder. "Good one, man!" He turned around, picked up his hot chocolate, grabbed her hand and began to lead her out of the library. "Come to my room, we can sleep together tonight," he told her, taking a sip of the sugary drink. Cas had put a little too much cocoa in it, but he didn't mind.

The angel furrowed her eyebrows together. "But I don't sleep…"

Dean shrugged. "I know."

That night they ended up curled up together in Dean's bed, with the hunter spooning the angel and playing with her hair until he fell asleep. Meanwhile Cas ruminated on everything that had happened within the last few days. It all seemed to be moving a little too fast, not that she was complaining. The feeling of Dean's soft breath against the back of her neck silenced those thoughts a little. If this was what human love was, she was starting to understand why they craved it so much. Angels were so lacking in this sort of thing. Maybe that's why they were so uptight. Cas giggled at that thought and heard Dean snuffle in his sleep behind her as a result. A little smile worked its way onto her features. Yeah, she could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****SPOILERS****
> 
>  
> 
> **Yes I know what you're all thinking – _but they didn't find the bunker until after Bobby was gone!_ Well I'm declaring this an AU with my own warped timeline, where Bobby is still alive when they find the bunker. Cool? Cool.**
> 
>  
> 
> **Amber*****


	18. Impatience and Indecision

Gabriel sighed as he sat on a rock on the side of the road - the same road and the same rock he had been on when Castiel had confronted him days earlier. For once he didn't have any sweets on him, instead he sat there empty-handed staring out at the barren concrete strip that ran headlong into the distance. Things had finally reached the point where they were not fun anymore, even in the slightest. The Winchester's were just too uptight to get good reactions out of now, and too street savvy to fool. Worst of all, Sam was not interested in him at all. So all his effort had been for nothing anyway.

A smirk worked its way onto his face. Figures that some puny humans would eventually outwit him. Actually this was kind of a nice change of scenery; for millennia he'd been revered and worshipped and feared by people as Loki the prankster, who notoriously _could_ and _would_ fuck you up. For this reason humans avoided him, or at least tried to. The Winchester's on the other hand had just disliked him because he was a prick (he wasn't going to deny he was one, because that would be silly). They hadn't cared about all the Archangel faff; he was just a douche with wings and another monster to deal with. They had never seen him as anything more than he what he saw himself as, which was refreshing. Being constantly put on a pedestal got boring, which is one of the reasons he had gone into hiding in the first place. He didn't want to be idolised or worshipped or feared. He just wanted to be a normal dude, and have some fun along the way. In fact he wished his dad had of made him a human because life would have been so much easier that way.

The leaves of the maple trees that surrounded him ruffled slightly in the breeze. The sun was getting lower in the sky, bathing the world in the reddish hue of dusk.

He looked up above. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight…"

"Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning."

Gabriel snapped his head down and raised an eyebrow when he saw none other than Sam Winchester walking towards him. The Impala sat a few meters away on the side of the road behind, the dimming sun reflecting off the black paint.

The hunter breathed in and rolled his eyes up towards the sky. "Looks like it's going to be a nice night, huh?"

The Archangel ripped his eyes away from the car and followed the hunter's gaze. "Yeah, it does." He glanced back down at Sam, who was still looking up. "How did you find me?"

Sam lowered his eyes. "Call it hunters intuition. And the help of an angel who owes me some favours."

Gabriel chuckled. "Ah, Cas. She will never cease to amaze." He leant forward and rested his arms on his knees. "So what are you here for? I'm assuming you want me to turn Cas back, or maybe to tell me that if I'm smart I'll disappear and never show myself again?"

"Actually I'm not here for either of those things," Sam replied, putting his hands into his pockets. "I just wanted to ask you something."

This caught Gabriel by surprise. He sat up slightly and kept his eyes firmly planted on the hunter. "What?"

Sam glanced around at the empty road. "What's it like being alone for millennia?"

Gabriel's expression turned quizzical. "You could have asked Cas that."

"But Cas has never really been _alone_. She was living up in heaven with all the other angels until she came down here, and ever since she's been with us. But you ran away. You left your family and came down here. Separated yourself from your own kind and put yourself amongst humans who could never truly understand you." Sam took a few steps closer.

The archangels knee-jerk reaction was to smirk and shrug. "I've gotten by. Who can blame me for what I did though? Better down here than stuck up in heaven with those ninnies. I'll admit it's starting to get old though – everything is, really."

A car zoomed past the duo. Sam followed it with his eyes briefly as it ran into the distance. "I know what you mean. It's all starting to seem a bit repetitive but I guess that's what you get being a hunter. Monster's don't care about variety."

"Neither do humans apparently," Gabriel looked at Sam and grinned. Sam couldn't help returning the gesture.

"I want you to know I am grateful that you helped us during the apocalypse." The younger Winchester paused. "I'll never forgive you for making me relive my brothers death a thousand times over. I'll probably never forgive you for turning me into a girl. But I do appreciate the good in you Gabriel, even if it is scarce."

Calmness seemed to permeate through the atmosphere as Gabriel rose from the rock and closed the distance between himself and Sam, so they were standing face to face. Somehow the look in Gabriel's eye informed Sam that this was not a gesture of intimacy but one of solidarity instead. "This is why I like you Sam, because you can dissect your opponent. You can see the good and the bad, unlike your brother who just calls 'em as he sees 'em. Keep that. It will serve you well throughout life." He backed away slightly and pointed to the rock. "You see that rock? That's me, stuck in the same place, doing the same thing, day in and day out forever. And you see the road? That's you. You keep on going, you just continue on, and I'm just a little blip that you'll pass and eventually forget about. I admire that. I admire humans because they evolve." He looked at Sam then back at his rock. "Angels never do."

Sam shrugged. "There may be a few cases that give me cause to disagree."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Stay savvy, Sammy-boy."

Sam watched as Gabriel disappeared and let out a long overdue sigh of resignation. It finally, _finally_ seemed like this episode was wrapping up. The sun was only just slightly peaking over the horizon now, and the world was a dim shade of twilight. Yellow leaves covered the ground, some with sun-scorched tips from the blistering summer day. The warm night air brought the scent of heated earth and asphalt to the younger Winchester's nostrils. The birds could be heard singing their last song for the day, readying themselves to retreat into the night. Sam walked back to the Impala, which sat diligently on the side of the road waiting for him. It was peaceful.

* * *

Dean blinked his eyes open and yawned. The first thing his green irises were greeted with was the back of a person's head – a person who possessed brown hair so dark it almost bordered on black. He tried to recall the events of the night before to determine whom exactly it was sharing his bed, and remembered inviting Cas to stay with him. While that still felt kind of strange, it warmed him a little inside. He rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed, poking Cas in the shoulder to alert her that he had awoken. Mostly likely she was just lying with her eyes closed, waiting for him to get up since sleep was impossible.

It was with great surprise that when Cas rose, turned around and met eyes with Dean that the hunter found himself staring at the familiar tired, stubbled face that he had dealt with for years. He watched Cas blankly for a minute or so, trying to process this information. Cas' befuddled blue eyes stared back at him, not having a clue as to why the hunter looked so put out.

"What's wrong, Dean?"

The hunter moved his jaw up and down a few times without being able to form any sounds. With some effort he found his voice. "You're you…"

Castiel's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm aware, but why does that appear to be so shocking to you? Are you feeling okay?"

Dean shook his head. "No, I mean you're back in your old meatsuit! You've got Jimmy Novak's face again. You're – you're a guy!"

Cas frowned. He threw the blankets off himself, walked over the mirror Dean had hung on the wall and looked at his reflection. Lo and behold Jimmy Novak's face stared back at him, complete with bags under his eyes and five o'clock shadow to boot. He scratched his nose and stuck out his tongue as if he was expecting to see something alien poke out from his mouth. If he was, he must have been disappointed to find that everything was in order as far as his vessel went. He ran a hand through his short messy hair and turned back to Dean. "Gabriel must have finally had enough."

Dean nodded with ide eyes. "Must of."

The angel lifted his arm and scratched underneath it. For him, it wasn't really surprising to find his vessel had been switched back. He knew eventually Gabriel would grow tired, he had just been very impatient during this entire escapade. He walked back over to Dean and sat next to him in on the bed. "Can I get you a coffee or something?" He asked, not exactly sure how he should be reacting to this in Dean's eyes.

The bed squeaked and bowed under the weight of the two men and only served to make Dean realize just how different (and heavier) Cas was in his male form. In some ways, seeing Cas normal again was a relief – he had missed his face so it was nice to have it back – but in others it was too much to take in. He ha just started getting used to his feelings with a female Cas, and now he had to battle once again with those thoughts of homosexuality which made him so uncomfortable. He looked at Cas and swallowed hard. "Why don't we go and make breakfast together?"

"Okay." Cas stood up and offered his hand to Dean, but the hunter refused and stood up by himself.

"I'm okay. Let's go." Dean refused to make eye-contact with the angel and walked out of the room. Cas followed behind him, confused and slightly hurt at the minor rejection.

When they got to the kitchen they found Sam rummaging through the fridge. The younger Winchester didn't have to look behind him to know somebody had entered the room, and who it was. "Good morning," he called, sticking a hand behind his back and waving awkwardly at the new arrivals, "Do either of you know where the cheese is?"

"It's in the door, next to the ham," Dean replied before Cas had the chance. He glanced quickly at the angel who didn't respond.

Sam ruffled through the fridge for a few more moments and then stood up holding a block of cheese in his hand and closed it. "Thanks Dean, I just couldn't see it." He turned around and spotted Cas instantly, the look of surprise on his face being visible to both other men. "Cas, you're back to normal."

Cas nodded and smiled. "Yep. Now we can get on with more important things."

Sam returned the gesture. "Yeah!"

The casual friendliness was too much for Dean and he pushed past Sam to get to the coffee machine and avoid witnessing any more of it. The action cut the conversation short and caused both Sam and Cas to watch him concernedly as he went to work brewing himself a morning pick-me-up.

Reluctantly Sam pulled his eyes away from Dean's back and refocused back on Cas. "Gabriel must have finally gotten over it."

"He has a short attention span. It was bound to end soon enough even if we hadn't gotten him to change you and Dean back when we did," Castiel commented, having a harder time keeping focus on Sam when Dean's aura just screamed internalized frustration.

"You're probably right," Sam agreed," Pulling out a knife from the drawer and getting back to the sandwich he had been preparing to make before the other two had walked in.

A growl sounded behind them and Dean bashed down the knife he had wedged under the seal of the coffee bean can he was trying to open. "Why do they have to seal these things so tight? What are they trying to do, keep things from getting out of it? My god."

Sam walked over and snatched the can out of Dean's hand, opening it easily for him in one go then handing it back. "Calm down, it's just a can of coffee beans."

Dean grabbed the can out of Sam's hand roughly and shot him a deadly glare. "I am calm. It's you guys who are acting weirdly."

Cas tilted his head to the side curiously. "How?"

"You're being all buddy-buddy. That's not our tone." Dean turned back to the coffee machine.

Cas turned to Sam. "I thought we were buddies."

"We are." Sam frowned and licked his lips. "He's just woken up on the wrong side of the bed."

"Cram it, moose," Dean snapped.

Sam began cutting the red onion he had on the bench quite roughly. "You know, I kind of thought you'd be happier once we were all back to normal. Guess I was wrong."

Dean set the machine to start brewing and turned around. He ran a hand over his face and breathed deeply. "No, look, I am; it's just messed with me a bit. I'll get over it."

The younger Winchester raised his eyebrows and began layering toppings onto his sandwich. "I hope so."

"I will," Dean insisted.

The rest of the morning was uneventful. Dean made his coffee and Sam his sandwich, they then sat down and chatted in the library. Dean parted with Sam and Cas after that and retired to his bedroom where he sat on the edge of his bed, deep in contemplative thought.

The image of Cas' naked female body (or what he imagined Cas' naked female body would be, since he had never actually seen it) sashayed through his mind. He swallowed hard at the mental image, liking very much what he saw. Then the female body morphed into the male equivalent and Dean's breath hitched in his throat. He still liked the picture, but half of him felt like it was wrong to do so. It wasn't him, he wasn't that way. He couldn't be. He wanted to refute it, desperately wanted to do so, but deep inside he knew that if he did he wouldn't be being completely honest with himself.

When all was said and done though, the whole thing really came down to one question: If Cas walked into the room right now, would Dean treat him any differently to the way he had treated him last night?

And, well, Dean wasn't quite sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovelies! I am so very, very sorry for the delay between chapters. I've been quite busy the last month and had a few distractions but I never forgot about this, it was just put on the back burner for a while. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter and it satiates your needs for now!
> 
> Amber***


	19. Minor Details

Castiel stood in front of the mirror. He had never really taken a good look at himself, but recently he felt the overwhelming need to do so. For the first time he noticed every minute detail of his vessel popping out at him in a way he had never before perceived. For instance, where once his face was just his face, now it was a thousand different things all at once: it was the dark sunken bags under his eyes, the dry cracked skin of his lips, the rough stubble running from his jaw down his neck, the numerous fresh and faded scars on his cheeks, forehead, nose and any other part of his face that had been hit over the years; It was the dark mussed strands of hair on his head, the protrusion of his Adams apple, the rounding of his ears, the dotting of his pores; it was the curve of his eyebrows, the frown lines on his forehead, the crease between his eyebrows, the slight discolouration of skin near his hairline; it was crinkle at his eyes, the darkness of his eyelashes and the piercing azure of his irises. It was a story in and of itself that detailed not only the several years in which he had inhabited this body, but also every one that preceded them when Jimmy Novak possessed control. It was scary and it was amazing.

Then he wondered what it was to Dean.

What did the hunter see when he looked at it? Did he see the details that Cas himself saw, or did he see less? Did he see more? Did he really see anything at all? Or was it just another face to him, like all the other faces he had seen over his lifetime that had passed and impressed themselves only in memory. Castiel couldn't say. He knew only that he held some type of significance to Dean – as a friend, and a brother of sorts, and perhaps something deeper but he wasn't sure exactly what that was. Dean's fluctuating treatment of him didn't make understanding any easier either; one minute they were cuddling in bed, the next he was avoiding him like the croatoan virus. With such jumbled signals it was difficult coming to any sort of conclusion about their relationship.

He lifted a hand and examined it. It was tanned, and large with long fingers, and the veins running through it were clearly raised and visible. It was a good hand; a hand that Castiel thought shouldn't be rejected to hold. A hand that once had been held by another hand, which was also large but much rougher and calloused and scarred than his own. This good hand had the power of healing, and Castiel knew that if he wanted he could use it to vanish the scars that littered his own body and anybody elses. He didn't though, because he liked to have something to remind him of the passage of time which otherwise left no physical impact on him.

He remembered a conversation that he and Dean had many years ago about healing. He had healed the hunter many times, and nothing had ever been said about it until that night. Dean had looked him in the eyes after having a rather nasty laceration cleared by him:

" _Don't heal the scars. Leave them,"_ He had said with no uncertainty.

Castiel found himself perplexed by the request but the hunter explained it to him promptly. Dean told him the scars were memories, tokens, tattoos of victories and defeats alike, and he wanted to keep them. He wanted to wear his life on his sleeve, to have _something_ , _anything_ to show for the otherwise invisible work he did.

After that Cas never cleared his scars again.

The angel let his hand drop and walked out of his room. Somehow the bunker felt colder tonight. He paced the empty halls hollowly, trying futilely to decipher the emotions in his head. There was no explanation for the situation he and Dean were in. The best he could do was wait until Dean said something – whether it be to embrace or reject him. For now he was in a cruel limbo of confusion and guilt. Maybe it was something he had done; maybe he had brought this upon himself. Dean obviously knew better than he.

* * *

It was a shock when Dean walked into the garage and found Cas sitting on the hood of the Impala, staring aimlessly at the closed iron roller shutter*. The angel had never really shown an interest in the car, nor had he ever shown an interest in mechanics, so it was odd to know he had made his way down here without coercion.

The hunter walked around to the front of the car and crossed his arms over his chest. "We can't go on like this, you know."

Cas looked up at him and squinted his eyes. "Like what?"

"Like we're scared of catching cooties or something if we stand next to each other." Dean sighed and let his arms flop down by his sides. "This is ridiculous."

It was all Cas could do to raise an eyebrow ironically. "You did this. You can hardly complain."

Dean ran a hand through his hair. "I know, I know."

Cas was leaning back on the car, the palms of his hands resting on the edge of the bonnet while his fingers hung over; he drummed them on the grille of the Impala, waiting for Dean to make his next move. Right now he was expecting him to walk out again like he was prone to do these days, even though he hoped this particular conversation might go somewhere different.

The cogs in Dean's brain were working overtime. He knew his actions were unacceptable as of late, but he couldn't seem to find a nice neat way to put everything back in its place. There were issues that, whether he liked it or not, needed to be addressed and tiptoeing around them was not going to accomplish that. He looked down at Cas who was watching him patiently, no doubt probably wondering what new way he was going to devise of leaving him hanging. Those bright, yet fundamentally sad eyes bored into him with the intensity of holy light.

He had been deliberating his feelings for the last few days but simply thinking them out was proving to be non-beneficial. To get to the crux of the matter, he was going to have to jump in headfirst and damn all underlying anxiety that followed that revelation. What exactly did this mean? Well it was simple enough – he was going to have to engage Cas romantically… the way he was now.

It wasn't an easy decision and it wasn't going to be an easy execution, but if you're starved for options you try just about anything. That's the way Dean had rationalised it in his head, anyway.

A wave of adrenaline hit him as he leant down over Cas, placing his hands on top of the angels. For a moment he let his face hover just above those piercing azure eyes, which looked more confused than ever. His body arched over the one below it. His heart beat fast in his chest. The moss strewn forests of Dean's irises melted into tumultuous seas as they locked on to Cas'. It was strangely mesmerising. Then finally, he threw caution to the wind and dipped his head down to meet the angel.

The question in Dean's head was answered immediately: oh yeah, he was still attracted to Cas in every sense of the word.

Suddenly control was not a word in his vocabulary any longer, and he was leaning into Cas. Pushing him flat against the bonnet. Their bodies rubbed together with the most delicious friction as they frantically grabbed for one another, in a frenzy that only the belated release of pent up passion could create. It was intense and raw, even animalistic in a way.

Then Dean pulled away for air and looked at Cas; they were both gasping for oxygen, red-faced and shocked at themselves. Dean was now lying on top of Cas, sandwiching him between himself and the Impala. It was quite absurd, and as things started to settle down in his head, Dean let out a chuckle and allowed his head to flop down in the crook of Cas' neck.

A bit startled at what had just occurred himself, Dean's chucking set Cas off into a strange kind of hysteria and he found himself giggling along with the hunter uncontrollably. Within moments the two of them were lying on the Impala in a fit of laughter.

Dean felt like a weight had been lifted ff both of them and it was a great relief. He never wanted to get up again – staying here in this position for eternity would have been all right if it was up to him.

Cas closed his eyes. "I don't know what I'm feeling, but I like it," he gasped in between giggles.

The hunter, without lifting his head, grinned into the angels shoulder. "Me too."


	20. Alls Well That Ends With a Movie

Dean laid back on the pillows propped up against the bedhead. He missed lying on his own sheets in his own room, and it was hard to believe that they had only been away for about a week. It felt like years had passed since Gabriel turned their world topsy-turvy and made Dean re-evaluate himself and what he wanted. Yet at the same time, it felt like no time had passed at all. Like in a way this was all just business as usual – fighting monsters, dealing with weird crap, bottling up emotions. It was a pretty standard cycle at this point. 

Rolling his head over to look at the picture of his mother on the bedside table, he wondered what she would have thought about all of this. She had been a hunter, true, but Dean had the sneaking suspicion that even she wouldn’t have been prepared for the onslaught he and Sam had been through. What’s more, she definitely wouldn’t have known what to do with angels and demons, and certainly not forming relationships with them. That was all foreign to even the most current hunters really, he and Sam were a very special case. 

There was a lot to be said about the path they had followed, but one thing was sure in Dean’s mind, and that was that he wouldn’t have changed a thing. After all, if he did he wouldn’t have ever met Cas. 

As he daydreamed about his life, the door of his bedroom opened and Sam walked in carrying two beers. He walked over to Dean and sat on the edge of the bed, placing one of the beers on the bedside table. 

“She would be proud of us, you know,” Sam mused as he took in his brother studying the photo of their mother.

Dean sat up and picked up the beer. “I know. I just wonder what she would have done had she been in our place.” 

“Probably kick ever monsters ass that she could find,” Sam said, shooting Dean a smile. He watched as Dean popped off the cap of his drink and took a swig. “So, have you sorted things out with Cas?” 

The older brother raised an eyebrow as he lowered his bottle. “What do you mean?” 

Sam had to stop himself from slapping Dean upside the head. “You know exactly what I mean. I’m not blind. For the record, I have no problem with it, he’s a good guy. A bit awkward in social situations and a complete dork, but a great friend.”

A slight redness began to bloom in Dean’s cheeks. “Yeah, I don’t know what we’d do without him now. He’s kind of becoming part of the furniture.” 

It took all of Sam’s willpower not to demand Dean cut the crap for once. Instead he rolled his eyes and nodded. “Things wouldn’t be the same without him.” 

“Let’s hope he doesn’t decide to bail on us then,” Dean said, holding out his beer to toast Sammy. 

They clinked their beer bottles together in mutual agreement; as they both went to take a swig Castiel appeared next to them. In his hands he held an old VHS cassette tape of The Twilight Zone. How he had acquired it was anybody’s guess, but neither Winchester would have been surprised to find that it was in the Men of Letter’s video catalogues; They had been known to dabble in time travel, after all. 

He shyly made his way over to the duo and held up the box so the Winchester’s could see what he had. “I thought we could watch this film together. I understand that The Twilight Zone is quite interesting.” 

Sam grinned and took the tape from Cas’ hands to look at. “Ha, it’s the eighties movie. I can already feel the nostalgia welling up inside me.”

Dean bent over and looked at the cover. “Oh man, I haven’t seen this since I was in my teens. We gotta watch it.” 

The younger Winchester stood from the bed. “I’ll go set it up in the library.” He began to walk out of the room and Cas made to follow him, but Dean’s hand gripping his wrist stopped him in his tracks. 

“We’ll be there in a sec,” Dean called after Sam as he left the room. He let go of Cas’ wrist and the angel turned around to face him. 

“Is there something wrong?” he asked quizzically, looking the hunter directly in the eyes. 

Dean shook his head and jumped up from his bed so they were standing face-to-face. “No, I just wanted to thank you, for everything. I don’t think you get enough credit for all the crap you’ve gone through for us.” 

Cas shot Dean a small smile. “You don’t have to thank me, I’m just doing my job.” 

“I’m pretty sure you’re out of an official job these days. I’d say you’re freelancing,” Dean joked. 

“Well, whatever you call it there’s no need for thanks,” Cas insisted. 

Dean’s smile softened and ne nodded. “Okay, would you take this then?” Before Cas could react the hunter has planted a kiss on his unsuspecting lips. 

It was only momentary and Dean was away from him again before he really knew it, but it was enough to bring a blush to his cheeks. “Yes, that will do just fine,” he said, looking down at the ground. 

The hunter took his hand and started to walk out of the room, pulling Cas along with him. “Come on, Sam will get antsy if we don’t get to the library soon.” 

They walked down the hall silently, joined at the hands. Dean stared straight ahead, back in his own little world. Cas side-glanced at him and smiled, knowing that things were finally starting to come together. 

Soon enough they found themselves in the library. Sam was already sitting back on one of the chairs with his feet resting on the table; his eyes zeroed in on the two clasped hands of his brother and friend but he didn’t say anything and Dean, although Sam knew he would have noticed the direction of Sam’s gaze, didn’t flinch or seem to care at all. The younger Winchester gave the duo a knowing look as they took their places on the other sides of the table. 

“So, are we ready to go?” He asked, picking up the remote up from his lap.

Dean looked at Sam and grinned. “Let’s get this party started already. I wanna see some planes being ripped apart.” 

Cas looked over at Dean and raised an eyebrow. “Is that all this film is? Aeroplanes being disassembled?”

The brothers both laughed and shook their heads. “No!” 

“It’s much better than that, trust me.” Dean reached over and grabbed Cas’ hand which was lying on the table. 

Cas smiled. “I always do.” 

Without any further hesitation Sam started the film and the boys all settled in to watch. It was finally the end to an adventure the Winchesters (and Cas) were sure to not be forgetting any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody! 
> 
> I am _extremely_ sorry that it has taken me this long to update. I'm going to be frank with all of you and say that I burnt out with this fic and couldn't think of a way to round it off for quite some time; but, after much mental stagnation and steadfast determination to give this fic that all of you have been so invested in a proper ending, I managed to write this last chapter. I hope that this provides some closure, in some way. 
> 
> Also, a shoutout to Broken_Crayons. I wanted to respond in a private message, but like you I'm not sure how to on this website. If somebody could tell me if there's a way to do that it would be greatly appreciated. But I digress. You have an interesting fic idea and I am flattered that you asked me if it was possible to write it for you. Unfortunately, I can't accept your request because I'm not that keen on OC's (I should write them more but I'm very self-conscious about creating my own characters. Weird, I know, I should get over it) and I'm about to start back at uni again, so I feel I might put it on the backburner if I start and leave you hanging once again. I am really sorry and feel very guilty for not being able to take your request, I just don't want to dissappoint you any further. Thank you again for your kind words and I hope that you can find another writer to help your ideas come to fruition, I'm sure the resulting story will be done much more justice that I could currently do it! 
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading. I hope you enjoyed the fic and I'm sorry about the delays. It's been a long journey with this one, through one of the worst years of my life and beyond, but we got here in the end and that's what matters. Stay awesome and I'll see you next fic! 
> 
> Amber***
> 
> Oh after all that I forgot to mention the name for this fic (and the tone of the fic in general) was inspired by the song Flipside by The Breeders. It's just an instrumental but I like the feel of it, check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zskWYRzueHs


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